Blazblue Zombies
by MaesLawliet
Summary: An unknown infection has ravaged Kagutsuchi. Those infected want nothing more than to sate their hunger with the flesh of others. Who will survive and more importantly, will anyone survive? Complete.
1. Infection

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the characters or anything from Blazblue.

Now this is a little different from my other stories. Mostly because it contains ZOMBIES (sort of)! More like the infected but that doesn't work as well as zombies does.

I will admit that I have read Marvel Zombies and played Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare and was partially inspired by them (if the title 'Blazblue Zombies' didn't quite give it away) however I'm not stealing plot points from them (kind of hard to do since there aren't superheroes in Blazblue and the technology is much more advanced than that of Undead Nightmare). However, I have _not _seen Highschool of the Dead. Any similarities here are purely coincidental.

Long story short, I just thought: Zombies + Blazblue = ?

**Optional music**: Blackwater, U.S.A from Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare: youtube. com/ watch?v=57BrkddvjDI

Enough of that though. Enjoy the first chapter!

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><p><strong>Infection<strong>

It appeared as if the end had come for Kagutsuchi. Near enough everyone had been slaughtered. Almost the entire population of the city had been picked clean. There were few left alive. Most of whom where hiding, hoping they would not be seen by 'them'.

'They' were the others left alive, although alive didn't exactly seem to be the best term for them and was more of an overstatement. 'They' hunted down the few survivors wanting only to dine on their flesh. 'Zombies' was the name given to them by the survivors. That too was a slight overstatement. The dead had not risen nor were the 'zombies' actually dead. A more accurate name would have been the 'infected' however that name didn't roll off the tongue so well so 'zombies' was the agreed term.

No one was quite sure how it started. All the stories said that it began in the lower areas of the city, specifically in Lost Town. The evidence spoke for itself. A single Kaka shambled into other areas of the city. Where else would residents of Lost Town come from? It was currently unknown if the contagion started there or if the Kaka had become infected by someone else from a different area. No one particularly wanted to venture down there and investigate.

The story of what happened next was unknown to most. The Kaka made its way to Ronin-Gai and what happened there was only known by a few who managed to escape to other areas. The ones who escaped attempted to warn people in other areas of a man-eating Kaka who would eventually make its way to different parts of the city. Of course, no one believed them and merely continued their daily business.

When the Kaka appeared in higher areas of the city the rumours were shown to be true as it suddenly began biting and eating chunks of flesh of the populace. There appeared to be two different victims: those bitten a single time and those completely devoured.

The devoured ones only served to slightly fill the appetite of the ravenous Kaka. They were the lucky ones. They simply died and left the world. For those unfortunate enough to be bitten once such as on the arm or neck were met with a much crueler fate. Cursed to walk the earth as a flesh-eating monster much like the Kaka who bit them.

It didn't matter what kind of person it was. Both humans and beastkin were affected the same way. Although not too visible on the Kaka, the infection affected the bitten ones' appearance slightly, causing their skin to have a necrotized look. The amount of those bitten grew at an alarming rate and soon the amount of living beings began to dwindle.

Soon after, soldiers from the Librarium were called in to eliminate the threat. But they had little to no effect. Nothing did any visible damage to the infected, not even ars magus or any of the Nox Nyctores. It was a constant loop of waves of attack by the soldiers, advancing by the infected who finally bit or consumed them when they got close. This repeated until every soldier was killed or turned.

Eventually, very few managed to escape being devoured or turned. Curiously, those bitten retained their intelligence and any skills they possessed. Upon realising that they would have less food to themselves, the infected began to attack each other. To the 'zombies', other infected tasted terrible so their attentions turned to the destruction of the head in order to kill each other. It appeared to be the only way to stop them. The severity of wounds dealt to each other meant nothing. Only complete dismemberment was the surefire way to halt their advance.

With hunger sated and destruction of the lesser infected complete, something curious happened. The zombies appeared to return to their original selves albeit still infected. They began to talk among themselves.

"What's happened to us?"

"I don't know but look what it made us do!"

"All these people… we killed them"

"Calm down, we seem to have regained our senses for now. We need to find a way to make this last."

"Yes, we need to find a cure. Though I fear it may already be too late. We have to focus on finding a cure before the hunger comes back again" Jin Kisaragi stated. He began to walk away closely followed by the other infected: Tsubaki, Makoto, Carl, Bang, various civilians, several Ikaruga ninjas, many small Kaka and the carrier of the disease, a sleeping Taokaka being carried by Bang.

**To be continued...**

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><p>And there's the first chapter. Not much happened. Just explaining the basic story.<p>

To make something clear, I don't have anything against the characters who were revealed to be zombies. They're just the ones I thought should be zombies in my original train of thought.

See you all next time!


	2. Survivor Stories Part One: Ragna

I figured I should get the second chapter out here soon after the first one since the first chapter was more of a prologue. Now we're starting to get somewhere :D

As you could probably tell from the first chapter, not everyone of the Blazblue cast was infected so the next couple of chapters will be focused on the survivors.

**Update: Optional music for the chapter!**

Nemesis' theme from Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3: youtube. com/ watch?v=qUzaybvfLiU

Enjoy!

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><p><strong>Survivor Stories Part One: Ragna<strong>

Ragna the Bloodedge wasn't present during the outbreak. He was outside of the city, planning his next move against the Library. Terumi's involvement complicated matters so he had to think carefully about his 'movements.

"Not much point in just sitting around here I guess" he said to himself. He stood up and made his way to Kagutsuchi, unaware of what waited for him.

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><p>"What the hell?" Ragna said in disbelief, taking not of the many bodies littering the ground. "What the hell happened here?" He examined a fallen man's injuries. "His throats been torn out." Ragna looked at the injuries of some others. All fatal. "Seriously, what the hell's going on here?"<p>

He continued to look around, eventually finding his way to the Monorail area to find some signs of life. So far he was unsuccessful in finding anyone. "Anyone alive around here?" he yelled. No answer. "Figures no one would answer. Who would want to announce their presence to me anyway?"

He wandered around a little longer, unable to find anyone or anything which may indicate what had happened. He was about to give up and head to another area when he heard the hiss of metal from nearby. He looked around cautiously, drawing his weapon.

"Whoever's there better get the hell out here right now" he said in the direction of the sound.

"Tao smells Good Guy!" Tao leaped out from his blind spot and dived towards him. Ragna jumped out of the way, not wanting to be tackled to the ground.

"Tao, good timing" he sighed in relief. "Do you have any idea what's happening around here?"

Taokaka looked confused. "I dunno but Tao's really hungry."

"I don't have any food Tao" Ragna replied. "Just try and help me out a little here."

"Sure you do, Good Guy" Tao looked up at him. "You're the food!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" he questioned. He didn't have time to wait for an answer though. Another attacker appeared from behind forcing him to turn and block. "Jin, what the hell happened to you?" He took in the different appearance of his brother: necrotised skin.

"She's right, Brother" Jin smiled darkly. "You're the food we're looking for." Tao also jumped to attack him.

"Shit, what the hell is wrong with you guys?" Ragna yelled as he swung the Blood-Scythe at his assailants.

"Just give up and make it easier for yourself, Brother" Jin offered as he blocked the attack with Yukianesa. "We may decide to let you live, by which I mean, let you join our ranks." The hunger had taken over once again. No progress was made in finding a cure so it seemed like they had been wasting their time.

When the hunger returned, they split into groups on the condition that they could eat whatever they found without sharing with the other groups. They all knew that some of their former friends hadn't become on of them so they knew vaguely who to search for. Taokaka joined Jin despite him saying that he would search on his own. The two appeared to have plenty of luck seeing as they found Ragna.

"Like hell I'll give up and let you win, Jin" Ragna told him, pushing him back. "I don't know what the hell's going on here but I'm not about to let you start eating me."

"Feed Tao, Good Guy!" Taokaka yelled as she jumped at Ragna baring her sharp teeth. Ragna threw a punch at her to get her out of the way before Jin could interfere again. Necrosis hadn't done anything detrimental to the speed of the infected Kaka and dodged it easily by halting her pounce and leaping again. Before Ragna could react, her teeth clamped down on his right arm.

"Wrong arm, idiot" he said curtly as he threw her off. For once he was glad his right arm was prosthetic, otherwise he would be missing half of it right now. _"Okay so they look like they should be dead and they're trying to eat me alive. What are they, zombies?"_ Ragna asked himself. Jin once again clashed with Ragna who was still able to block it.

"On second thought, Brother" Jin began. "We're already running low on people to eat so I'm sure you'll understand if we just eat you piece by piece. My offer still stands as long as you stop resisting and accept your fate."

"Whatever the hell happened to you must have screwed up your mind more than usual, Jin" he smirked. "You should know better than anyone that I never give up without a fight and I still don't intend to let you eat me even if you do manage to beat me."

"You're outnumbered two to one" Jin reminded him. "It'll only be a matter of time before you start getting tired."

_"I'm getting out of here if anything like that happens" _Ragna scowled. Tiredness was the only thing he was slightly worried about right now. Should tiredness overcome him, he'd be next on the menu for the two of them. Running away was a much better alternative to being eaten or becoming one of them.

"Tao will get you this time, Good Guy!" she cried as she once again pounced at him while Jin was keeping him occupied.

"Shit, this could be bad." He looked over his shoulder to keep track of where Tao was, trying to think of a plan. He stood his ground against Jin, not pushing him back but still holding his ground. He pulled his sword back to unleash a quick slash at Jin's legs. Jin blocked it easily. Yukianesa was much easier to handle than the Blood-Scythe so he briefly wondered why Ragna would try such a thing when both of them knew this fact.

"Food!" Tao yelled, as she was only a few feet away.

"Gauntlet Hades!" He suddenly kicked Jin back, jumped and grabbed Tao by her head, throwing her forwards. Her momentum caused her to go far further than expected.

"Nyot fair, Good Guy!" Tao cried as she hit the ground. Jin attempted to land a stab whilst Ragna was in the air. Predicting this, Ragna countered by swinging his foot down and kicking Jin in the face, knocking him down.

"Guh, damn it, what the hell is this?" When he landed, Ragna stumbled and fell on one knee. He used his grimoire in an attempt to drain some energy since normal means of slowly wearing them down wouldn't get the job done soon enough. It appeared to have backfired on him though as if they had some form of negative energy causing him to feel drained.

"To hell with this, I'm getting out of here while I still can" he said to himself. He picked himself up and began to run while the two were still stunned. He wasn't sure about where he was heading now but anywhere was better than where he just was.

"Problem is, I don't know where the hell I can go without being attacked by more of those freaks. I don't even know how many of them there are." For the time being, he thought it would be best to find somewhere to hide while he got his energy back. He headed into a dark alley and sat down. "There must be others who aren't zombified" he thought. "I'll try and look for someone in a little while."

He managed to get a few minutes worth of rest before he heard nearby voices.

"Tao smells food around here, Ice man" Tao's voice said.

"_Shit, she can probably smell me" _Ragna thought.

"Brother!" Jin called. "I can't wait to see how you taste!"

"Geez, I could have done with a bit more of a rest but I should get going" he said to himself quietly. He stood up and cautiously looked around. As he was about to run off somewhere else, he heard a gust of wind. He froze and suddenly felt a hand touch his shoulder, making his eyes widen. _"Shit! I let my guard down!" _The wind blew again and everything suddenly went black.

**To be continued...**

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><p>And that's what Ragna happened to be doing shortly after the infection had spread all around the city.<p>

Fun Fact: In my original trail of thought, Ragna was the original carrier of the infection. This was revised when I thought: who's going to be the main character when the main character's a zombie?

In the next chapter, another survivor tries to... uh survive... as you do.

See ya then!


	3. Survivor Stories Part Two: Noel

Hey, hey everybody! The third chapter is right here :D

As I said last time, this is another survivor story. This one featuring (*drum roll*) Noel! We'll find out what she's been doing before and during the outbreak. Don't worry about what happened to Ragna at the end of the last chapter. All questions will be answered in time.

Now that that's out of the way, chapter time!

**Update: Optional Music for the chapter**

Tabitha's Theme from Advance Wars: youtube. com/ watch?v=z_GxeKBrng0

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><p><strong>Survivor Stories Part Two: Noel<strong>

"W-why is this happening?" Noel asked herself as she sat down to rest in an alleyway between two houses. She was terrified, exhausted and in tears. She had seen first hand what these people (if they could be called people anymore) had done to the majority of the population and wanted nothing more than to escape and survive.

The call to dispatch Librarium soldiers was rather curious when she first heard word of it. She couldn't think of anything that would require almost everyone to be dispatched at once except for a war. War obviously wasn't the reason otherwise there probably would have been warnings beforehand.

Noel remembered fighting alongside Tsubaki, Makoto and Jin against the cannibalistic hordes. She recalled how nothing they did even came close to hurting them. Even Bolverk did nothing but cause them to turn their attention towards her. Every attack they threw at the hordes merely slowed down their approach a little, not completely stopping them. At that time, they didn't know what cruel plans fate had for them.

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><p><em>30 minutes ago<em>

"Seriously, what does it take to stop these guys?" Makoto complained as she punched one of the infected directly in the face.

"I don't know" Tsubaki replied, slashing at them with Izayoi. Once they arrived at the scene, orders were changed from 'quell the rebellion' to 'kill every last one of them'. "Nothing we do is working on them."

"Even Bolverk doesn't affect them" Noel stated, striking one of the horde on the head Bolverk itself. She looked over at Jin who remained silent with a scowl on his face.

"_What the hell is happening around here?" _Jin asked himself. He was able to hold them off a little better with Yukianesa being able to freeze them albeit only temporarily. _"This is beginning to become more trouble than it's worth." _

"There's too many of them!" Makoto yelled. "I can't- AGH!" she cried.

"Makoto!" Tsubaki and Noel cried out as they saw one of the crowd approach from behind and bite her neck. Noel aimed a shot at its head, knocking the person off of her as Tsubaki ran over to help her. Makoto fell to her knees clutching her neck. As she did so, the ones attacking her lost all interest in her and began attacking other soldiers. Noel managed to preoccupy any that attempted to attack Tsubaki so she could reach Makoto safely.

"Makoto! Hang in there, you're going to be alright!" Tsubaki assured her.

"Ugh, I feel weird and…" Makoto muttered. She struggled to get up. Tsubaki reached her arm out to support her as she tried to stand. "…Hungry!" She suddenly took a bite out of Tsubaki's arm.

"AGH!" Tsubaki screamed in pain.

"Tsubaki!" Noel cried. "Makoto, what are you doing!"

"I don't know but I just got real hungry for flesh all of a sudden" she replied, wiping the blood from her mouth. "And now I really want to see what you taste like Noel." Noel nervously stepped back as Makoto approached. Before Noel even began to think about what to do, Makoto was hit in the side by a sword made of ice, freezing her.

"Don't start going soft on them" Jin reprimanded her. "We were ordered to kill them."

"Major, you can't! She's-" Noel began.

"Your friend?" he finished for her. "What kind of friend tries to turn you into that?" He pointed at the masses who had now began to turn on him and Noel now that Tsubaki had been bitten.

"B-but-" she stammered before she was interrupted again.

"Kill them, Lieutenant Vermillion" Jin ordered. "That's an order which you will _not_ disobey." At that moment, Makoto managed to break out of the ice encasing her. Tsubaki, who had succumbed to the infection mere moments ago, also joined her. The two, along with the rest of the crowd closed in on Jin and Noel.

"S-stop!" she ordered her friends, voice shaking. They didn't listen. "I-I'll shoot if you come any closer!" She pointed Bolverk at them but she couldn't keep her aim steady as she was trembling so much. They still didn't listen and kept approaching. She wrapped her finger around the trigger still but couldn't bring herself to shoot her friends.

"It only hurts for a minute, Noel" Makoto told her.

"We're your friends right?" Tsubaki said. "Why don't you join us?" Noel shut her eyes, trying and failing to stop her tears from escaping.

"SHOOT THEM, VERMILLION!" Jin yelled at her. Noel suddenly opened her eyes again only to see the hordes grab Jin. With Noel's hesitation, he had no one supporting him in his attack. It was only a matter of time before he was caught.

"Major!" she screamed. She fired at the ones who had grabbed him but she was shaking so much that she missed almost every shot. She saw one of them rear its head back, mouth wide open about to clamp down on him. Before she could watch the inevitable fate of her superior, she turned and fled.

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><p><em>Present time<em>

"I don't know what to do" she said to herself. "I need to find a way to turn them back to normal but I don't even know if I can do that." She remained where she was for now thinking that she would be safe enough here to actually gather her thoughts. Realising she didn't have any idea of what she could possibly do, she thought that she should look for help. "Maybe a doctor could help somehow but should I look for one when there's a chance that they've become like them? No, I need to think positively, I need to save the others. Let's see…" She thought for a little while about where the closest hospitals were which she knew weren't overrun.

"Maybe Litchi would know something about it. There's a chance that she could do something to help my friends and everyone else." She stood up and walked to the end of the alleyway, making sure to look out for anyone who could attack her. "Litchi's clinic was in Orient Town. That's area 19. I'm in the Bascule which is area 21 so it's not too far from here." She began to sprint in the direction of Orient Town as quietly as possible.

"I just hope I can do something to help."

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><p>Orient Town wasn't any prettier of a sight than the Bascule or anywhere else for that matter. Noel cautiously continued to walk in the direction of Litchi's clinic. She was lucky enough to not meet anyone on the way yet. She eventually reached the clinic and quietly stepped inside.<p>

"H-hello?" she said quietly. No answer. She slowly stepped further in taking in the appearance on the clinic. It appeared to have been ransacked with papers and books strewn over the floor. The infected had most likely entered every building, wrecking them to search for survivors. Upon venturing into every room, Noel finally concluded that there was no one here. She sighed in defeat. "I had a feeling this would happen. I hope she's alright." Her thoughts were interrupted by a sound from outside. Noel gasped but quickly covered her mouth to stop the sound escaping. She could now hear voices too.

"Are you sure you saw someone around here?" a familiar voice asked. It was Tsubaki.

"Absolutely" the other answered. Makoto. "I know I heard someone somewhere near here. At least I hope someone is. I'm just so hungry!" she complained.

"Don't remind me" Tsubaki replied. "I'm just as hungry as you are." She sighed. "If this keeps up we'll have no choice but to start eating each other."

"Don't say that!" Makoto shouted, trying to block out what she just said. "I don't want to remember how bad that taste was. I almost threw up after one bite."

Tears once again welled up in Noel's eyes. Her own friends were coming to try to eat her or at the very least, infect her. She quickly decided to try to find a place to hide but in her haste, she accidentally kicked a book across the floor into a wall. The book made a loud enough sound for Makoto to hear.

"Wait, I heard something in there, let's check it out" she said. Now completely terrified, Noel made a mad dash to find a window so she could escape through it. Her luck seemed to turn around for the better as there was one she could escape through in the room she was already in. She quickly but quietly climbed through it and once again dashed away through the streets.

"Makoto, there's nothing here" Tsubaki concluded after they searched the clinic in it's entirety. "What a waste of time…"

"I'm sure there was a sound in here. Maybe my ears aren't as good as they used to be" she sighed.

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><p>"Litchi wasn't there and now I'm running for my life again. I don't know what to do." Noel looked back to see if there was anyone chasing her. She sighed in relief after realising no one was there. When she turned around though, she saw a shadow of a person before her. She was too late to stop running and she collided with the person. She was knocked onto the ground by the impact yet the shadow appeared to not have been affected at all.<p>

"_No! Please no!" _she yelled in her mind. _"Someone! Anyone, please help me!" _She shut her eyes tightly not wanting to watch herself get eaten. She knew she would be either dead or dining on flesh soon. The person's laid their hands on her shoulders causing her to panic even more than she already was. Noel blacked out a few seconds later.

**To be continued...**

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><p>And there you go. Noel appears to have been met with a similar fate to Ragna. Question is, what is that fate? Well, I'll explain later.<p>

For the second half of this chapter, I thought that if there was some sort of strange disease/infection going around, my first choice of where to go would be to a doctor to see what they knew about it so that's why Noel decided to visit Litchi.

Now that I mention it: Where's Litchi if she's not in Orient Town? Also, has she managed to evade the infected hordes or has she already become one of them? Okay, that's enough hinting at who's going to be in the next chapter.

Next time on Blazblue Zombies, will we have Litchi's survivor story or Litchi's hunt for food?

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><p>Before I go, I'm going to respond to some reviews.<p>

Ibram Gaunt: I haven't seem Highschool of the Dead or heard of Dawnbreaker but I like other zombie stuff (which is why this fic exists anyway). Thanks for reading.

Jlargent: Very nice, thanks for reviewing.

Cardlover95: Sorry but I can't really magically cure Jin now that I've written those last two chapters and this one. However after reading your review, I edited this Noel focused chapter to include more pre-zombified Jin. Compare what he did in this chapter to what he did in the original version which was hold off a couple of zombies, get bitten and that was about it. Hope you liked what I changed it to.

Taromaru: I'd love to tell you whether this is Terumi's doing or not but we're still early in the story right now. He'll make his appearance later, don't worry about that :P

And now that that's done, I'm outta here!


	4. Survivor Stories Part Three: Litchi

And we're once again back with Blazblue Zombies, yay!

And once again (once again), it's another survivor story (can't have a zombie invasion without survivors). This one focuses on Litchi (as if my subtle hints from the last chapter's closing notes didn't give it away already).

Now, if you've even briefly seen my other Blazblue fics, you'd have seen that Litchi is my favourite character. Don't worry, I'm not going to do stupid things such as zombify every other character and make her the sole focus of the story. Litchi will be important as the other survivors are, nothing more. The only benefit she gets as being my favourite character is not being zombified in her initial appearance.

**Update: Optional music for the chapter**

Demon Lord Ninetails from Ookami: youtube. com/ watch?v=zcMpSwvrgsg

Okay, since that's over and done with, chapter time.

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><p><strong>Survivor Stories Part 3: Litchi<strong>

Lost Town was eerily quiet. The silence was almost scary but it didn't deter Litchi in the slightest. She came to Lost Town after fleeing from Orient Town in hopes of finding something that might indicate the origins of this plague/disease/curse. Whatever it was, she wanted to do something about it. So far she hadn't found anything. Fortunately, no one was around (she hoped so anyway) making it easier to get around without being attacked.

Litchi sighed deeply. "Still nothing. I figured it was worth a shot to come down here anyway." She took a moment to reflect on the devastation caused by this epidemic. "Those poor people. This is unlike anything I've ever seen. I'm not even sure if I can do anything about it." She was thankful for her own safety although she felt that luck played its part in her survival too. "I can't give up yet" she told herself, determination rising. "There must be something around here so I can get to the bottom of this for all those people's sake."

She continued venturing around the village hoping that she would be able to find something that would help in any way. She approached the fountain thinking something in the water supply may have caused this. Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary but looks could be deceiving sometimes. Litchi hastily decided to move on though. The water may have been contaminated but she had no way of knowing if it was or not without tasting it. She wasn't quite brave enough to risk it though.

As she walked by the houses, she didn't notice that she was being watched from the shadows. When she eventually got the feeling that she was being watched, she turned and looked behind her. Her heart seemed to stop right there. A Kaka kitten was following her, more importantly, an infected Kaka. Upon noticing her target spot her, the Kaka cried out loudly. Litchi didn't stick around long enough to try to find out what its cry meant but saw that, when she looked back, many more were chasing after her as well as some Ronin-Gai ninjas.

"_How long have they been following me?" _she asked herself. _"I had no idea that they were there until a few moments ago."_

"Miss Litchi!" a voice boomed.

"_No, don't tell me-"_ she said to herself.

"Do not fear, I will save you from your pursuers!" Bang yelled. "In return, I only ask for a taste of your beautiful flesh."

"Mr. Bang, try not to make it too obvious…" a young boys voice sighed.

"_Even Carl and Bang were..."_ she began. _"I don't know if I can take this anymore."_ At this moment, she felt as if all hope had been lost. Everyone she knew had become one of these flesh eating monsters and she hadn't encountered any others who may have escaped like she had. Maybe everyone had been killed or infected and she was the only one left. She tried her best to ignore these thoughts but couldn't argue with the facts she had been presented with.

"She's heading for the sewers!" Carl pointed out. "Catch her before she get's there!"

"_The sewers" _she thought. She didn't realize it until now but she noticed she had indeed been heading there. Maybe it was just instinct since she had been there so many times before. _"It's not safe but what choice do I have? If I can lose them in there, I may be able find help later. I just hope I don't run into _him_." _

A few of the Kaka pounced at her but all fell short. Several ninjas did the same but she was able to dodge them or strike them and knock them away with her staff. Finally, she reached the sewers and wasted no time in running inside. Her pursuers stopped at the entrance.

"What should we do?" one of the ninjas asked.

"Isn't it obvious? We follow her" Bang said, only stopping because the front rows had stopped so the back rows couldn't pass. "Are you suggesting we give up on the only food we've found?"

"N-no, not at all" he stammered. "It's just…"

"He's concerned about that Arakune creature" Carl stated. "We may taste terrible to each other but that thing might not even care."

"Split up" Bang ordered the others. "We have to make sure we find her before that creature finds her." All of them ran in and split up at various twists and turns.

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><p>Litchi didn't like running in the sewers. Although she could cover more ground by doing so, she chose to walk for now after managing to get some distance between herself and them. Running would be her last resort. If she ran now, she would make too much noise from her footsteps echoing off of the metal structures and puddles. She would be found in an instant if anyone was nearby.<p>

"_I still don't know the exact layout of the sewers"_ she reminded herself. _"I just need to lose them. Then I can try to figure something out."_

She continued wandering around the sewers. Fortunately she hadn't spotted anyone yet. She slowed down her walk when she heard footsteps sounding in the direction she was heading and they were getting louder. Not wanting to risk walking blindly into them as well as not having much choice, she turned on heel and walked as quickly and as silently as she could in the opposite direction. She reached a junction and quickly looked down both sides.

"There!" a voice called from the left side when she looked that way. "Don't let her get away!" Once again having no choice, Litchi sprinted down the path on the right holding on to the slim hope that she had of losing them but what were the chances of that now that she had been seen? They would hear her easily.

As she ran through another pipe she saw a viscous black fluid begin to drip down in front of her.

"_No, not now!" _ she thought. This was it. She was done for. She attempted to run around to the right of where the substance was dripping from but it was no use. The black substance came down in a huge mass rather than in drops when she was directly below it. It landed on her left shoulder, weighing her down. "No! Lotte, please don't!" she cried.

"Kihihihihi!" Arakune laughed. "Consume! Y u wil be consum d by me! Ihihihihihi!"

"Please! Stop!" Litchi screamed as she felt the weight on her increasing. He was weighing her down so she couldn't get away. With what felt like Arakune's full weight on her, she was brought down to the ground hard and hit her head hard on the surface of the pipe, knocking her into unconsciousness.

Litchi's assailants heard her screams and ran in the direction of them. They stopped upon seeing Arakune preparing to devour her.

"Igi? Who re you?" he asked. "Don't int rf re."

"Aww, Squiggly got her" the Kaka whined.

"I was looking forward to having something to eat" the ninja accompanying the kitten said in defeat. "I guess we better tell the others that this thing beat us to it."

"We'll just eat Squiggly instead!" the Kaka yelled, ignoring her partner. She sprang towards Arakune and began to bite at his makeshift body.

" ou, eat me? Kihihaha! Futile!" He extended his body around the kitten and began to absorb her into his body. The Kaka cried out for help but her companion ran away in fear knowing that he could be devoured as well. "Bac to the main co rse." Arakune extended his body once more, preparing to absorb Litchi into him as he did to the Kaka but he stopped. "Igi? Ar these my mem ries?" A voice then sounded inside of him.

"_It's going to be OK… You're going to be OK."_

"Th s voice. Who-? He began before it sounded again.

"_I'll… stay by your side…_

"Li…" he said. "Li…tchi… Litchi" he repeated. The whole ordeal made his entire body scream in pain. "Aggggggg!" He thought it best to let his meal go rather than suffer more pain. Litchi, still unconscious, was forced out of his body.

* * *

><p>"Ugh" Litchi groaned as her vision started to come back. She sat up with a start when she noticed she was still in the sewer and then looked down at herself. "I'm alive? But how?" As she looked back up, she yelped upon seeing Arakune mere inches away from her. "Lotte… you didn't eat me?"<p>

"O ly pain wh n I devour you" he said. He was still trying to comprehend why attempting to eat her caused him so much pain.

"I see" she said. She couldn't imagine why consuming her was causing him pain. Maybe he was remembering her. "Thank you." She smiled warmly but he paid no notice to her.

"I trust that you haven't been bitten, Madam?" a male voice asked from behind her.

"No, not y-" she answered before stopping. She didn't recognize the voice at all and she had just told him that she hadn't been infected. Nervously turning her head, she saw a shadow behind her. Litchi gasped as she felt the person's hand touch her shoulder. She instinctively reached her arm out to reach for Arakune to help her but she only managed to briefly touch the tar-like substance that made up his body before everything turned black.

**To be continued...**

* * *

><p>Can't have a Litchi chapter without Arakune in there somewhere :P<p>

The same thing keeps happening to all of the survivors! What is actually happening to them?

Here's something you may or may not find interesting: we'll find out next time!

This means that's enough survivor stories for now. There may be more later (I'm just not going to tell you all yet).

And now that I've covered everything I want to talk about: I'm outta here! See y'all later!


	5. Sanctuary

Well here we are with the next part of the zombie invasion. Here, we actually see some progression rather than the handful of survivors surviving and disappearing. We also get to see what happened to Ragna, Noel and Litchi at the end of the last three chapters.

Here we go!**  
><strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Sanctuary<strong>

The last thing Ragna remembered looking at was the outside wall of a house. Now he was looking at something completely different: A large castle with a full moon behind it. He groaned knowing exactly where he was and what had happened.

"Hey Rabbit, why the hell did you think it was a good idea to suddenly appear behind me when there're all those zombies around?" Ragna asked her angrily. He was thankful to be alive but would have rather been saved by someone else

"Do stop shouting at the one who just saved your life again" Rachel replied calmly. "Besides, I doubt that you would have much of value to lose should these 'zombies' capture you and attempt to eat your brain."

"Go to hell" he spat.

"It appears that Kagutscuhi has literally become hell, wouldn't you agree?" she commented. "Thousands killed, mindless individuals foraging for the last of the human race and every area is considered a savage wilderness."

"You can say that again" Ragna said. "Any idea of what's going on?"

"No, what caused this epidemic to start is unknown" she answered. "It may be Terumi's doing but I can't be sure as of now."

"It wouldn't surprise me if he had something to do with it" he said. Rachel nodded. "So have you done anything about it except for rescue me?

"There is little I can do" she replied. "I have sent Valkenhayn to find others in situations like your own. We will need to find as many survivors as we can if we are to do anything about our predicament."

"And out of all the people you could have looked for and saved, you came after me" Ragna assumed. Rachel didn't respond so he continued."Even if we gather as many people as we can, what are we supposed to do about it? If you haven't seen this kind of shit happen before, how're we gonna be the ones who put an end to it?"

"With patience Ragna" she stated. "When Valkenhayn returns, he will hopefully be able to provide us with some information."

"You sure he's gonna be alright?" he asked. "Like you said, it's hell out there and if he gets zombified we're officially screwed. He'll just come back here with some new friends and kill us."

"I have complete faith in Valkenhayn's abilities" she replied. "However, I did consider the possibility that such an event may occur. We agreed that should one of us become infected, we are to end our lives immediately before the infection takes hold."

"Makes sense" he replied. "This is the only place that's still safe."

"My point exactly. There will be no intruders here, only guests of our choosing. Speaking of which…" She sensed Valkenhayn returning to the castle. Sure enough, the elderly butler appeared carrying an unconscious Noel in his arms.

"I see your search was successful, madam Rachel" Valkenhayn said, noticing Ragna's presence.

"Yes it was" Rachel replied. "Will Miss Vermillion be waking up some time soon?"

"I should hope so" Valkenhayn assumed. "She ran into me while she appeared to be escaping and has passed out in fear. " He gently laid Noel on the ground due to a lack of other places to put her for now.

"I suppose it's an understandable reaction considering the situation" Rachel said. "Have you found anything else?"

"Yes, I managed to catch a glimpse of someone entering Lost Town being followed by a number of pursuers" he recalled. "I thought that I should first bring Miss Vermillion back here to ensure her safety before aiding the other. I also noticed vast crowds attempting to enter the buildings of Sector Seven which appears to have been locked down."

Rachel smiled a little. "I should have known Kokonoe would have survived. I believe I'll pay her a visit shortly."

"Anyone could have locked the place down" Ragna thought aloud. "Don't you think it could be a trap to lure you in there? Those freaks still know what they're doing even though they're driven by hunger."

"I highly doubt Kokonoe would do something like that if she would have been infected" she replied. "I'm fairly certain that the first thing she would do would be to lock herself away so no one could get to her."

Ragna sighed. "Well I suppose you know what you're doing."

"Indeed I do" she told him. "Valkenhayn, see if you can offer some assistance to the person you saw if they are still managing to elude the masses. I will take some time to talk to Kokonoe."

Valkenhayn nodded. "I shouldn't be too long. Remain safe, madam Rachel" he said before taking his leave.

"Ragna, you are to watch over Miss Vermillion until either Valkenhayn or myself returns" she ordered.

"It's not as if I have a choice" he muttered.

"Good. Well then, since this is Kokonoe, I may be some time." She walked over to her trembling familiars. "Nago, Gii, we're leaving."

"B-b-but Princess" Gii stammered. "We don't wanna go back out there!"

"Surely we don't need to worry with trying to bring Kokonoe back here" Nago protested. "You know neither of you can get along well with each other."

"I already told you that we're leaving" she reminded them. "If you continue to disobey me, I'll send you back there on your own."

"We're coming with you, Princess!" They instantly appeared beside her, Nago transforming into his umbrella form. Rachel wasted no time in making her way to the Sector Seven labs.

"Sucks to be those two" Ragna commented. He approached Noel and looked down at her. No way was he going to just sit there and watch her. He nudged her with his foot. "Hey, Noel, get up." He received no response so he nudged her a little harder. "Wake up already. No one's gonna eat you around here." Still nothing. "Damn it, wake up you idiot!" he yelled, kicking her side with considerable force.

"Ow!" Noel cried. She sat up instantly but her eyes had already begun watering as she held her side.

"Ah geez, here it comes" Ragna rolled his eyes.

"Why did you do that?" she sobbed. "It hurts." She then paused for a moment when she saw who it was who woke her up. "R-Ragna the Bloodedge! I-I'm arresting you-"

"Give it a rest" he cut her off. "Where the hell are you gonna take me when you arrest me?"

"You're going to-" she stopped when she took in her surroundings. "Tell me where are!" she demanded. "Kidnapping me only adds to your sentence."

"Shut up with all that Library crap, you idiot!" he shouted at her, making her flinch. "Everyone's dead or zombified so there's nowhere for you to take me."

Noel gasped as images flashed through her head. Makoto, Tsubaki and Jin all becoming infected and her best friends hunting her down so they could eat her. "T-that wasn't a dream?" she whimpered. "Everyone attacking each other, my friends trying to eat me. All of it was real?"

"Yeah, it was real" Ragna replied.

"S-so they're still after us?" she asked, dreading the answer.

"No, they're not and stop crying already" he ordered. "We got lucky. We were rescued by the people who live here." He pointed to the castle. "They're trying to find more survivors right now so they're not here at the moment."

"What are we supposed to do now that we're here?" she asked.

"We're probably going to start trying to do something about this zombie virus" he replied. "There's not much else we can do."

"I want to help" Noel volunteered instantly. _"If I was lucky enough to survive, I have to do something to help my friends and everyone else."_

"We were going to force you to help anyway so you didn't have much of a choice anyway" Ragna told her.

"So who are the people who rescued us?" Noel asked. Before Ragna could answer, Valkenhayn reappeared in the garden accompanied by Litchi.

Where-?" Litchi looked around in confusion. She remembered being in the sewers but now she was somewhere that she had never seen before. "Where am I?"

"Dr. Litchi, you're alright!" Noel greeted her, earning her attention. "I tried to find you but you were gone so I thought something terrible might have happened."

Litchi finally felt relieved upon seeing a friendly face. "I'm glad to see I'm not the only one left."

"Hey Doc" Ragna said, acknowledging Litchi's presence. He turned to Valkenhayn as Noel began telling Litchi where she was and what they were doing. "I doubt Rachel's going to be any time soon either."

"I agree" he replied. "Madam Rachel and Kokonoe have never gotten along very well."

"Azure. I c n s nse it. " Everyone looked around to see Arakune looking around curiously.

"Uh, you mind telling us why you brought that thing back too?" Ragna asked Valkenhayn.

"It must have touched one of us before I was able to bring Miss Litchi back here" he replied.

"That was probably me" Litchi admitted, thinking back to what happened in the sewer before getting here. "I didn't know who you were so I reached out and must have touched him by accident." Because everyone had talking to each other, Arakune had already completed his analysis of his current whereabouts and everyone nearby.

"Azure! Give me the Azure!" Arakune screeched as he lunged at Ragna.

**To be continued...**

* * *

><p>And there you go. It was Rachel and Valkenhayn who rescued the survivors.<p>

Also, Arakune's become involved in his own way (thought I'd just leave him back in the sewers, didn't you? :P). Although it doesn't look like he wants to help find a cure for our little plague.

Regarding the next chapter, I'm not entirely sure which chapter to do next. There are only two possibilities which are:

**1)** Rachel visiting Kokonoe (alive or zombified is a detail I'll leave out for now).

or

**2)** The second part of this chapter showing the immediate aftermath of Arakune's attack.

Both will happen eventually but you guys can tell me which one you want to see next. If no one makes a suggestion or if there's a draw, I'll decide so the story doesn't just stop.

* * *

><p>Now for some review responses:<p>

Cardlover95: Hazama was actually going to be a 'rescuer' in my initial thoughts (he was going to betray them at the earliest opportunity). That idea changed because:

1) He wouldn't rescue Ragna because of obvious reasons and initially, as I said in chapter 2, Ragna was first zombie in my early thoughts.

2) In Noel's chapter, I wrote: 'she collided with the person'. Hazama's method of getting around was going to be in ghost form to avoid getting bitten and you can't collide with a ghost.

3) I couldn't think of a reason for him be where Litchi was. I also couldn't think of a good and convincing reason for him to rescue her. The best I could come up with was: "I'll rescue you if you do what I say" which isn't a very good reason at all.

Nonetheless, Hazama will appear in a later chapter so just wait for that :P.

BIBOTOT: I have seen a number of zombie films including most of George Romero's Living Dead franchise and Shaun of the Dead however I'll be sure to go over them to refresh my memory of the films and get some more ideas.

* * *

><p>Okay, I'm all done with this chapter so see you all next time!<p> 


	6. Hostility

Okay, it took a while to finally finish this chapter because I had some important things come up (seriously, I'm not just making excuses).

I decided to do the chapter which covers the aftermath of the last chapter this time around.

Nothing much to say so here we go.

* * *

><p><strong>Hostility<strong>

"Azure!" Arakune cried once again. Noel, reacting quickly, shot at him with Bolverk. He was blown back by the blast and landed in a heap on the ground.

"Did that do it?" she asked everyone.

"No" Litchi answered, knowing that the blast wasn't nearly enough to defeat him. Arakune laughed to himself as he reformed his shape as he lunged at Ragna nce again.

"Don't even think about it." Ragna responded to Arakune's attack by quickly drawing his sword and swinging at him. He swung it as hard as he possibly could, not in the mood to deal with him longer than he had to.

"Gaahhhhh!" Arakune yelled upon being sent flying across the garden by the attack. He slammed into a wall and slowly slid down it.

"I'll send him back to where he was before coming here" Valkenhayn said as he approached Arakune's unmoving form.

"No, wait!" Litchi cried, running in between the two shielding Arakune with her arms.

"Litchi, what are you doing?" Noel asked her in confusion.

Ragna groaned. "You can't be serious. You're still trying to save that thing when we've got more important things to worry about? Do you even know what's happening back there?"

"I've seen exactly what's going on and I want to put an end to it as much as you want to" she replied. "I don't plan to focus on saving him when I know what's happening. Please, we can work something out so he can stay."

"But, Litchi you can't mean you won't help everyone turn back to normal just because we don't want to risk being attacked by him" Noel protested.

"No, I don't mean it like that. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be here right now" Litchi explained. She told them what she could remember about what had happened to her before Valkenhayn found her.

"It doesn't sound like he actually tried to help you though" Noel thought.

"I at least owe him something" Litchi said. "He might be able to help us somehow. He can't be bitten so he can't be infected by them."

"That's not exactly what we're concerned about" Ragna stated. "Infected or not, he still tried to eat me. You should know better than everyone else here that that thing's nothing but trouble. Think about it: We leave him here, he eats us. We send him back, we survive."

"If we can keep him contained somewhere, we won't have to worry about him attacking any of us" she pleaded. "I'll watch over him to make sure he doesn't escape if I have to."

"What would Rachel say?" Ragna asked, his question directed at Valkenhayn.

"She would get rid of him if he were a threat to any of us" he replied.

"She's not here" Litchi tried to argue. "You can't speak for her right now."

"Miss Litchi, you said yourself that he won't be attacked or infected by them; Valkenhayn began, attempting to reason with her. "By your own logic, it would mean that he would be safe if we send him back. Please try to understand how we currently see the situation."

"If they can't infect him, they'll kill him" she replied, standing firm.

"That's a load of bullshit and you know it" Ragna scolded her. "You of all people should know how much of a pain in the ass it is to do anything to him."

"That doesn't mean he can't die" she retorted.

Ragna sighed. "This isn't getting us anywhere. I hoped it wouldn't come to this." He reached for the Blood-Scythe. "If you won't move, I'll move you." Litchi remained where she was.

"If you want to send him back, you'll have to send me back too" she said. Litchi didn't want to reach this conclusion either but she saw it as the only way to convince them. They needed every survivor they could get so they wouldn't get rid of Arakune if it meant she wouldn't cooperate. She readied her staff just in case of a sudden attack so she could defend herself.

"Miss Litchi, only myself and Madam Rachel can send you back" Valkenhayn explained.

"Exactly" Ragna said. "We can send him back and you wouldn't be able to do anything about it. You can cry about it all you want and not cooperate with us but I doubt you'd just sit back and not help us find a cure."

"Litchi, please try to understand" Noel tried to reassure her. "It's too risky to keep him here and we need your help."

"Fine" she said quietly. She knew she could have continued arguing but it wouldn't have helped her at all. All that would do would only end up causing tension to spread among the others if she did manage to convince them to let Arakune stay, she would alienate herself from the group. And Ragna was right; she couldn't simply refuse to help them. She hoped what Valkenhayn had said earlier about him being safe from attacks would remain true. She solemnly stepped aside.

"I'll return him to the exact location where I found you" Valkenhayn told her. He stepped over to Arakune and sent him back to the sewers. Litchi watched silently, wanting to do something to help however she knew that it was for the best. Once this was over, she would go back to see if he was still okay.

"Geez, took long enough" Ragna complained.

"Ragna, don't be so mean" Noel scolded him. "She cared for him… even if he is a wanted bounty… who eats people…"

"You might as well just stop right there" he commented. "You're not making it any better for her. Still, it killed some time while we're waiting for Rachel to get back."

"I've heard of being cruel to be kind but you're just-" Noel stopped herself and merely sighed as the means of ending her sentence.

**To be continued...**

* * *

><p>Well I thought I'd show some sort of argument among the group and since I brought Arakune and Litchi into the last chapter, it was just too easy to make things escalate from there.<p>

Anyway, Arakune's gone back to the sewers. He might be back later, but I wouldn't tell you right now if he will be or not (you should all be getting used to me saying that by now).

Next chapter will be focusing on Rachel visiting Kokonoe at Sector Seven. Maybe she's a zombie but then again maybe she isn't.

Find out next time.


	7. Survivor Stories Part Four: Kokonoe

Well I've certainly been gone for a while... Sorry about that. Work is starting to pile up on me so I wouldn't really expect updates to be as frequent as they used to. As an exception, the next chapter will be up soon since I've already started writing it.

Nonetheless, I'll continue with this story because I really like writing it :D

In case you've forgotten, this chapter was going to be Rachel visiting Kokonoe. If you already looked past the first paragraph, you'd have seen that Kokonoe has not been zombified. If you haven't already looked past the first paragraph, you'd have read the previous sentence and already know the what's happening (I'd have thought it was obvious).

**Optional Music: **Dr. Doom's theme from Marvel vs. Capcom 3: youtube. com/ watch?v=lcQ853ibg0

Anyway, on with the chapter!

* * *

><p><strong>Survivor Stories 4: Kokonoe<br>**

Rachel had hoped that finding Kokonoe would be easier than it currently was. Every door had been sealed off to prevent anyone from getting in or around easily. All she could do was warp herself from one room to the next, avoiding attackers until she eventually found Kokonoe.

* * *

><p>Kokonoe sat at a desk, chin recumbent on her fist, thinking deeply. She hadn't been bitten so she was still her usual self. She hadn't even been close to the hordes since she sealed all the exits in the lab. They were probably outside this very room clawing at the doors to get in. A useless struggle. The guilt she felt right now stemmed from her sending Tager and Lambda to check out what was going on.<p>

_1 hour ago_

She could see what was going on through Tager as she always did and it wasn't pretty. In all her years of being a scientist, nothing she had seen was more horrific except maybe the aftermath of the Ikaruga war.

As soon as she sent the two of them out there, they were attacked by the ravenous hordes.

"Kokonoe, what are your orders?" Tager asked, unsure of what to do about the attackers.

"They're attacking you right? Just beat the shit out of them" Kokonoe ordered. "Both of you shouldn't have to worry about turning into one of them. Even if we haven't seen it before, an infection still shouldn't affect either of you."

"Understood" came the reply from both of them.

* * *

><p>After some time of defending themselves, Tager noticed that there appeared to be no end to them. He was unable to dodge many of their attacks due to his large size. Despite several bites from the majority of them, he was still fine. At least that was something to be thankful for. Lambda, while the same applied to her, was much more worse for wear. She couldn't take as many hits as Tager could. The crowds appeared to have noticed they couldn't eat any part of the resistance and turned their attention to destroying them.<p>

"Lambda, what's your status?" Kokonoe asked.

"Major damage sustained" Lamda said, being swarmed by the masses. "Termination imminent." More of the crowd began swarming around her. Eventually she was unable to be seen through the horde.

"Shit" Kokonoe muttered. "She's not going to make it."

"Damage levels critical" she responded. "All functions…" she continued, voice becoming near inaudible. "…terminating…"

"Lambda! Lambda, respond!" Kokonoe hoped for a response but she received nothing. She punched a nearby wall. "Tager, get the hell out of there, now!"

"Kokonoe, it's no good" he responded. "The ones who attacked Lambda are moving on to attack me. I'm sorry, Kokonoe. I probably won't be returning." The added numbers started to prove too much for the Red Devil. They began grabbing onto his arms to prevent him fighting back. Tager struggled to get them off but there were just too many. After a fruitless struggle, he was eventually brought down.

"Tager! TAGER!" she yelled. "Answer me!" She heard nothing but static as she could no longer see what he could see. She stared at the screen in disbelief. Both of them had just been sent to their deaths. She punched the wall once again. And again. And again.

"K… K-Kokonoe…" Tager said, barely audible over the static.

"Tager, you're alive?" she replied, somewhat relieved.

"Only just…" he said, static beginning to get louder. Since the infected hordes had learned that he couldn't be eaten, they left him alone thinking he had been killed by their onslaught. "I'm… still alive… but I can't… do anything…"

"…" Kokonoe said nothing in reply. "I'm going to shut off communications. You need to conserve what energy you have left." She was silent for a few moments. "Mark my words, Tager. When this shit's over, I'm coming back for you. I got you into this and I'll be damned if I'm gonna leave you behind."

"Thank you, Kokonoe" he replied. "Stay… safe…" The static finally stopped as she shut down communications.

_Present time_

"The only problem now is that I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to about this" Kokonoe thought aloud. "This isn't like anything I've ever seen so I don't know where to start."

"It sounds like even someone of your intellect can't find a solution to this predicament" another voice said to her.

"Piss off Rachel. I'm trying to think" she replied, not facing the vampire.

Rachel giggled softly. "And here I was thinking you'd want to escape from this confinement without becoming something to be chewed on. In fact I think you owe me for the time I decided to waste in finding you."

"You're not this nice" Kokonoe scoffed. "You must be pretty desperate if you decided to ask for my help. What're you after?"

"I'd have thought that that would have been quite obvious" Rachel answered. "I'm after the same thing as you of course; an end to this epidemic and your help will be necessary."

"I never knew you thought so highly of me" Kokonoe deadpanned. "So why should I go with you if you think I'm smart enough to fix this mess myself?"

"You're making this more difficult than it needs to be. If you remember correctly, only Valkenhayn and myself can allow visitors to enter my realm. It is quite safe."

"I'll think about it" Kokonoe dismissed, not wanting help from her.

"I don't think there's too much to think about, Kokonoe" Rachel told her. "What can you accomplish here? You can't leave this room meaning you will eventually starve. Your only choices are to die of hunger or die of being eaten." No response came from Kokonoe. "And it's not as if you'll be alone with me there. I was kind enough to rescue some surviving members of the population before coming here."

Kokonoe sighed. "Fine." She stood up, finally facing Rachel.

"My-my, you certainly changed your mind quickly" Rachel smirked a little.

"Shut up" Kokonoe said, annoyed. "Let's just go already."

* * *

><p>"You took your time in getting back" Ragna commented when Rachel returned with Kokonoe. Rachel merely ignored him.<p>

"You said you'd rescued survivors" Kokonoe began, noticing the others. "Including me, that's four people. I expected much more than that, Rachel."

"I only said that I had rescued some survivors, not that I had rescued the majority of humanity" Rachel replied.

Kokonoe sighed. "Might as well work with what we've got."

"Well then, it appears as if we've gathered as many people as we can find without risking our safety" Rachel concluded. "It would be best if we started to work on finding a cure for our current dilemma."

"Yeah, we've wasted enough time already" Ragna said.

"Since I haven't been in contact with anyone infected with whatever this is, you three can share anything you've learnt about what's going on."

"I can't take any energy from them if I use this" Ragna recalled pointing to his grimoire.

"It's a start I suppose" Kokonoe muttered.

Noel also began thinking back to when she was confronted by the hordes. "From what I saw, it doesn't take long for the person who got bitten to become infected. I also heard them talking to each other and they said that if they won't eat each other because they taste bad." Everyone stared at her. "What?" she asked.

"So you're saying the way to avoid getting eaten by them is to let ourselves get bitten by them" Ragna said.

"She said share anything we learnt so I did" Noel tried to defend herself.

"Let me rephrase what I said: Share anything _useful _about what's going on." Kokonoe stated.

"I was only trying to help" Noel said quietly.

"Whatever. Anything from you Litchi?" Kokonoe asked her.

"Nothing particularly useful" Litchi answered.

"Well, you might as well share it anyway since she already did" Kokonoe gestured to Noel who looked away.

"I'm not entirely sure because I was unconscious at the time but they didn't try to eat me when Arakune tried to" she thought.

"Why did I know that you'd bring him into this?" Kokonoe said, unsurprised. "I'm surprised you didn't bring him here with you."

"She did" Ragna told her.

"It wasn't on purpose" Litchi attempted to explain. "We already sent him back in case you were wondering."

Kokonoe sighed. "At least you already sorted that out. And is that everything you know?" Everyone nodded. "I'm just gonna say it plain and simple: If that's all we know, we're screwed."

"I wouldn't put it that bluntly, Kokonoe" Rachel said. "In their defence, would they really be concerned about finding information about this infection when they were fleeing for their lives? I suppose you wouldn't know since you decided to ensure your own safety before doing anything else."

"So what do you suggest we do to start gathering information?" she asked.

"For now, I suggest that you return to your workplace so you can gather any equipment you may need" Rachel replied. "I assume that you must have something which may be of assistance somewhere."

"Fine, but I'm not going back there on my own" she reluctantly agreed.

"Of course, I'll need to be there for you to get around and I suppose you can bring one of those three with you as well" Rachel offered, motioning to Ragna, Noel and Litchi.

"We do have names" Noel tried to argue, becoming a little annoyed at the fact that they were only being referred to as 'those three'. Kokonoe briefly considered what the possible benefits (if any) would be of bringing one of them.

"Ragna, you're coming with us" Kokonoe said, choosing him because he was the only one of them she could put up with at the moment.

"Fine with me" he shrugged, not particularly caring about what he was asked to do as long as he wasn't sitting around doing nothing.

**To be continued...**

* * *

><p>And here we are with all the survivors. Collectively they don't know anything about the zombie plaguevirus/whatever since they were all too buy trying to stay alive**  
><strong>

There was something else that I was going to include for the sharing of knowledge. I honestly can't remember what it was but I remember Litchi was going to point it out meaning it was in her chapter somewhere. If I remember it (I hope I do), I'll make a note of it.

Regarding Tager and Lambda, I really wanted to put them into the story but couldn't find a good role for the two of them since they can't be infected with things (at least I hope not) and because I didn't want too many survivors (if Tager and Lambda were included with the current survivors, they could just kill all the zombies and get it over with). And yeah Lambda got destroyed. Don't hate me for it. It's just because I couldn't find a good role like I said. I might get Kokonoe to fix her up later like Tager if possible.

Next time, I won't tell you what's going to happen :D. Wait until the chapter comes out.

Also for all you Hazama lovers out there, he'll be making an appearance in chapter 9. Basically the one after the next chapter. Just thought I'd let you know.

See y'all later!


	8. Downward Spiral

Told you this chapter wouldn't take long to be uploaded :D

Like I said last time, this chapter is focused on something different and it is. It focuses on the zombies/infected whatever you want to call them. This chapter takes place very shortly after Litchi's chapter finished as in they've given up on going after her.

**Optional music: **A Man ready for Anything from Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare: youtube. com/ watch?v=OSL-QbQvClk

Anyway, here we go!

* * *

><p><strong>Downward Spiral<strong>

"So you're saying you lost her?" Bang berated the ninja who had last seen Litchi.

"N-no, th-that thing found her first" he stammered. "She ran into it before we could catch her."

"Why didn't you do anything about it you fool?" another ninja questioned.

"I watched it eat one of us" he tried to explain. "You can't blame me for wanting to save myse- GAH!"

"You lost the only food we could find!" several Kaka kittens yelled as they swarmed over him. Not eating for some time had made them all highly irritable.

"What now, Mr. Bang?" Carl asked. "Miss Litchi was only one person who wasn't infected. There must be others around, forming small pockets of uninfected survivors."

"Yes, we couldn't have eaten everyone in the city already" Bang thought. "We'll regroup with the others to report our findings. Even if we promised not to share anything we found, if they weren't able to find anything like us, they'll come to us thinking we might have found the last few survivors."

"We're heading back everyone" Carl announced as he and Bang set off back to where they started. Everyone followed silently. The attacked ninja didn't join them. He was quite incapacitated and wouldn't be getting up any time in the near future.

* * *

><p>"They're leaving" someone said looking through a gap in the wooden doors to the basement of a nearby house. "They said they were going to meet up with others." The person turned back to the rest of his small band of survivors. The twelve of them had grouped together for better chances of survival.<p>

"So what do we do now?" one of them asked.

"We wait here as we've been doing for some time now" another said.

"Are you insane?" a third asked irritably. The volume of his voice earned glares from the others indicating he was being too loud. "We're low enough on supplies as it is. We need to go out and find more! You're the so called 'leader' of the group so maybe you should do it effectively."

"Going out there now only gives our hideout away" the leader stated calmly. "You'd do well to remember that, Takaya."

"You've been saying we should stay here for hours now" one agreed with Takaya. "What's that going to accomplish?"

"Those monsters have only just left the village. They could have stationed some of them to stay here and keep watch. You'd head out there and get eaten alive."

"But what if they didn't?" Takaya asked becoming angrier by the second. "Because of your poor excuse for leadership, we're all gonna starve to death down here!"

"I suggest you calm down" the first said. "You're being too loud."

Now seething with rage, Takaya pulled out his gun. "Don't you tell me to calm down! I've had it up to here with this worthless 'leader'. I'm taking charge." He pointed his gun at the leader who didn't react at all. "Any objections?" Everyone remained silent. "Good. Now as my first act of being the new leader, I suggest we go out and find supplies. 'Mr. Former Leader' can stay here as punishment for telling us to stay here and die. Ken, Yuko, you two can come with me." He pointed at two of the others who obeyed without question. Not doing as he said would only anger him more.

"I'm telling you that this is a huge mistake" the former leader said.

"And I'm telling you to shut up!" Takaya fumed. "Your opinion is invalid."

Ken looked at his watch. "We'll search for half an hour. Any longer and we risk attracting their attention." Takaya nodded.

"We'll be back in exactly half an hour with more supplies" he announced. "Make sure you don't open these doors to anyone but us." And with that, the three left.

* * *

><p>"There they are" Tsubaki noticed Bang and Carl's group returned.<p>

"Did you find anything?" Makoto asked. Jin and Tao had also returned. Tao was napping peacefully and had been for some time now.

"No" Bang sighed.

"Don't worry, we didn't get anything either" Makoto said.

"No thanks to you" Tsubaki muttered. "We probably would have done if we didn't follow your ears."

"Lighten up" Makoto told her. "It's not like you would have done any better."

"So all of us set out and couldn't find anything" Carl summarised.

"That's pretty much it" Makoto agreed. "Those two got lucky." She gestured to Jin and Tao. "They said they found someone and ate them already."

"We found someone too but someone else got to them first" Bang told them.

"Tao's hungry!" Tao whined waking up from her nap. "Why did Good Guy have to disappear like that?"

"He disappeared?" Tsubaki questioned her before glaring at Jin. "You said you ate him."

"That means he's still out there somewhere" Bang also joined in glaring at Jin.

"They're probably hiding him from us right now so you can go back later and eat him piece by piece" Makoto suggested. "Get 'em!"

"Don't waste your energy" Jin stated calmly. "She's telling the truth." He gestured to Taokaka. "He disappeared and we have no idea where he went. I only told you that because I knew this would happen if I told the truth." Everyone backed down but decided to keep a close eye on the two of them for now.

"Maybe we should retrace your steps to make sure you're telling the truth" Carl suggested.

"Be my guest" Jin shrugged. "I've got nothing to hide."

* * *

><p>"Look at all the food we found" Takaya said. "And it's all thanks to me." They had looted anything they could find from empty shops and houses in the area.<p>

"This should keep us going for a while" Ken agreed.

"You remember the way back right?" Yuko asked. "It took us a while to get here after all."

"Of course" Takaya replied. "It only took a while to get here because we were focusing on finding supplies. We just need to head back to Lost Town."

_20 minutes later_

The three approached their hideout. "Quick, get in before anyone comes through here."

"It's us. Let us in." Ken knocked on the wooden door. The door opened and let the three in.

"Look at all the stuff we found" Takaya announced. "You should all be thanking me."

"I didn't think you'd actually find anything" one of the survivors admitted. The small group divided the food up evenly (although less was given to the former leader out of spite).

"Hey did you guys notice it's getting colder in here?" someone pointed out.

"Now that you mention it…" Yuko began.

"What the hell? Everything's freezing over!" Ken pointed at the makeshift furniture which had now been covered in ice.

"Get out before we freeze to death!" Takaya declared. The former leader merely sighed. He knew what was happening. He knew that it wouldn't have happened if there hadn't been a rebellion. The group rushed outside before they were completely frozen but once they did, they stopped.

"Wow there's actually quite a few of you." Makoto counted them all.

"There's enough of them to go around" Tsubaki smirked.

"You fools" Jin said, pulling Yukianesa out of the ground. "Trying to gather supplies from right under our noses was both brave and foolish. All we had to do was follow you back here so we could get our fill."

"Tell us where we can find any other groups like your own and we might consider letting you live a little while longer" Carl offered. None of them said anything, as they didn't know if there were any more.

"Is that so? Well then, it's feeding time everyone!" Bang announced.

"W-w-wait! Spare us!" Takaya begged. "We can share the food we just found with you!"

"Nice offer but regular food just doesn't seem to work as well as it used to" Tsubaki replied.

"Besides, how can we settle for what little supplies you have when you're all just standing there for us to eat" Makoto agreed.

"Tao's still hungry!" Taokaka cried. "Get in Tao's belly!" She lunged at them baring her teeth. The others soon followed not wanting to miss out on the feast.

**To be continued...**

* * *

><p>Takaya's gang were just one-off characters for this chapter. Initially, I didn't even give them names but I thought I should give the important members of the group names. And it just goes to show you, even the smallest things cause an argument to spiral out of control during a zombie apocalypse.<p>

On another note, we got to see what the zombies were doing: finding food which is largely what you'd expect them to be doing. I just thought I should have one chapter that focused on the zombies and not survivors.

Not much else to say here except: Hazama's in the next chapter :D


	9. Filth and Other Entertainment

Okay here's chapter 9. Turns out that I didn't have so much work after all so disregard my previous comment about slower updates.

As promised, it's chapter 9 so Hazama will be in the chapter.

**Optional music: **Magnificent Five from Viewtiful Joe: youtube. com/ watch?v=C8GjvEza2KQ

Here you go!

* * *

><p><strong>Filth and Other Entertainment <strong>

Two men roamed the streets of Kagutsuchi, visiting the various areas in no particular order. They appeared to be taking quite interested in the state of the ravaged city.

"I fail to see why you thought it was necessary to unleash it to this extent" Relius Clover said, observing the outcome of the infection while wandering the streets. This was the first time he'd actually seen the destruction and death for himself. "The entire population of Kagutsuchi is almost extinct."

"I was just fulfilling what the Imperator wanted" Hazama shrugged. "A world of death. That's what it is, isn't it? Minus the ones who are still alive of course but then again, they're not really alive, so to speak."

"Which brings up the question: why are we out here if we could be potential targets of those still alive?" Relius asked.

"Not getting scared are we?" Hazama smirked. "Scared you'll get infected and end up like them?"

"Not at all" he admitted. Although he was keeping an eye out for any potential attackers nearby, he wasn't worried in the slightest. He was more than capable of protecting himself. "I have my means of retreating should the situation go awry. Now answer me: why are we out here and why did you allow it to spread to such a degree?"

"First of all, I just wanted to see the results of our little virus outbreak for myself" he began. "Second, do you know how hard it would be to contain it after those stupid cats left their village? If they did what they were supposed to and stayed in their own damn village, we could have contained it. Now let me ask you something: why all the questions? You even helped create the virus. Having second thoughts?"

"I was under the impression that you would keep it contained once it progressed to a certain extent when you asked for my help" Relius reminded him. "And no matter how well it was created, it still cannot infect certain individuals. The Red Devil and Hakumen come to mind."

"Fair point but where are they now?" Hazama asked rhetorically. "No matter how well they can hold them off, they'll fall eventually and even if they can't be infected. The infected will do whatever they can to make sure any resistance won't be getting up again either by eating them or incapacitating them."

Relius didn't respond and continued to survey his surroundings. "Hazama, I've seen enough of your experiment. If there's nothing more for you to show me, I'll be taking my leave."

"Nope, that's pretty much all of it. You can head back, I'll stick around for a little while longer." Without a word Relius left, still keeping a watchful eye out for anyone nearby. "Well that was boring. It's not as if he hasn't seen this much death before." He visited several more areas admiring his handiwork.

"I wonder how Rags is doing" he said to himself. "It'd be a shame if the body of Black Beast became infected." He continued his leisurely stroll of the city, taking in the sights of the 'new' Kagutsuchi.

* * *

><p>"Well, I think I've taken enough of a walk around here" he said, lifting his hat up a little so he could see the sky. It was beginning to get dark. He started to head back to the sanctuary that had been provided for himself and other high-ranking members of the Librarium.<p>

While he was on the way back, he made his way through the Port in Area 5, where the true chaos began. Bodies littered the floor, some dead, some still groaning showing that they had already been infected. The 'alive' ones weren't going to be moving anywhere soon. Their legs had been either broken or torn off in the battle between the infected. Hazama stopped and stood above one of them, a man who had been almost completely dismembered. He merely smirked as he nudged his head with his foot.

"Looks like some of you just weren't cut out for the job of 'infected horde member'. You might as well have just died" he taunted still kicking at his head with his boot. "All you guys too" he said, referring to the many surrounding him who could smell food and were trying to pull themselves over towards him to eat him. "Yep, you're all just failures. Can't have an experiment without fai- Gah, damn it!" he exclaimed feeling a sharp pain in his foot.

He looked down noticing the one he had been kicking had bitten the side of his boot, not protected by the steel toecap.

"You're supposed to sit there and do nothing, you piece of shit!" He swiftly threw one of his knives straight into the infected man's head, killing him while simultaneously allowing his foot to be released. "Shit, that isn't good at all" he commented looking down at his foot. "Well, only one thing to do now." He emerged from the 'Hazama body' in his ghost form. The lifeless body flopped down onto the ground. (**AN: **From now on, since he's out of the Hazama body, I'll refer to him as Terumi.)

"Let's see those freaks bite me now" he smirked. "Now, how do I take this back?" he asked himself, looking down at his discarded body. He couldn't carry it as he would just phase through it every time he tried to lift it. "This could be a problem."

"Not for us it isn't" a voice said. Terumi looked around and saw an infected group of people he recognized.

"Oh, you guys" he deadpanned. "Say, you wouldn't be willing to help me out a little, would you? You can't do anything to me when I'm like this so why don't we just be a little more civilized about this?"

"We're hungry, not stupid" Tsubaki reminded him.

"You're a ghost, you can't do anything to stop us." Carl pointed out.

"Meaning we can just help ourselves to that" Jin pointed at the Hazama body. They all passed straight through Terumi towards the body and helped themselves.

"Hey, stop that!" Terumi yelled over their rather loud mealtime. "I mean it, get off! I need th- oh what's the point." He groaned in defeat. "No point in staying here watching them I guess. Relius isn't gonna like this one bit…"

* * *

><p>"Looks like our luck's finally turned around" Makoto said, still chewing on something. "I'm not even that hungry anymore."<p>

"Why is that a good thing? Tsubaki asked. "When we're not hungry, we don't feel so obsessed with killing and eating people. All I feel is guilt."

"The hunger completely overpowers us" Bang stated. "We can only hope that we can find a cure some time soon."

"We can't do anything about it" Jin commented calmly. "We'll try to search for a cure and we'll get hungry again until we find someone else to kill."

"All we can do is hope we don't find people who are trying to work on a cure when it happens again" Carl said.

**To be continued...**

* * *

><p>So there's Hazama in the story... and now Hazama's gone from the story :D. Don't worry, Terumi will appear again in another chapter (I can't have him not appear again). I'm just calling him Terumi because that's the accurate thing to call him.<p>

And of course he's the cause of the virus. Like I usually say, if something goes wrong in the Blazblue universe, Hazama's the cause of it.

Anyway, next time, we'll be seeing some sort of plan from our merry band of survivors to start working on a cure.

See you all then!


	10. Undead things are afoot

I told you I wasn't as busy as I thought :D

Compared to my other chapters, this one's pretty long and I'm quite proud of that. That's largely because there's a fight scene. Now I won't tell you who it's between yet because you can find out later :P

**Optional music:** (Best played near the beginning of the fight scene) Gran Bruce's theme from Viewtiful Joe:youtube. com/ watch?v=2L3WfvNDaDI

So here we go with the chapter!

* * *

><p><strong>Undead things are afoot<strong>

Ragna and Rachel accompanied Kokonoe as she looked around for anything to take that would help them in any way.

"You haven't picked up anything yet" Ragna began. "Is there even anything you're going to use?" As he said, Kokonoe hadn't taken anything from the labs yet.

"Now that I think about it, I can't think of a use for much of the stuff I have here" Kokonoe admitted appearing to ignore him. She hadn't exactly prepared the labs of Sector Seven to be a sanctuary for an unknown virus outbreak.

"Do tell why you didn't mention this earlier" Rachel said.

"So we came here for nothing?" Ragna questioned.

"Not exactly" Kokonoe replied. "I thought of something to help us learn about this outbreak. Rachel, take us back so I don't have to explain it twice." Rachel said nothing and simply brought them back to the castle.

* * *

><p>In Ragna, Rachel and Kokonoe's absence, Valkenhayn had prepared some tea to keep Noel, Litchi and himself occupied while they waited for the others to return. The three returned some time after they had finished.<p>

"You didn't bring anything back?" Noel asked them, confused.

"No, I've got a better idea" Kokonoe began to explain. "But it's still not without its risks."

"I'd be surprised if it didn't considering what's going on back there" Ragna commented.

"You're thinking of going back there?" Litchi assumed.

"Yeah, since we don't know anything about what's going on, I thought that the best thing to do other than sit here and slowly figure it out would be to go back there and capture one of them for testing." Everyone was silent. She was right about the plan not being without risks. "I know it's dangerous but I don't think we have much of a choice."

"True, some of us may not return should this plan fail" Rachel said.

"Now if we're going to go through with this, we need somewhere to keep who or whatever we catch" Kokonoe explained. "You got anything like that Rachel?"

"I do indeed" She nodded towards Valkenhayn who entered the castle. A short time later, he reappeared in the garden via his method of teleportation with a large cage.

"What the hell?" Ragna exclaimed, surprised. "Why the hell do you have that?"

"When my familiars prove to be more than an annoyance to me, I keep them in here with George XIII. It is quite amusing" Rachel explained. Nago and Gii trembled upon remembering such times.

"How are we supposed to get them back here without being attacked before we put them in there?" Noel asked. "Ragna said he can't drain energy from them so shouldn't that mean they won't get tired?"

"True but I doubt it means that they can't be knocked out" Kokonoe assumed. "To reduce the chance of failure, it'd be better only two of us went out there. We can't risk everyone going there and drawing the attention of every last one of them. Obviously, either Rachel or Valkenhayn will accompany one of you three. Any volunteers?" Kokonoe asked the group. No one put themselves forward. "I thought it'd come to this. Look, I know it's dangerous but if we want to do anything about this, we have to try something."

"If I could offer my input, I suggest that Valkenhayn accompany Miss Faye-Ling" Rachel suggested. Litchi appeared particularly surprised.

"Why me?" she asked.

"Because as Ragna told us earlier, his Soul Eater doesn't work on them, meaning if he were to be surrounded, it wouldn't end well for him. As for Miss Vermillion, she doesn't appear to have the heart to face them effectively" Rachel explained.

"Why do you think I'd be useless out there?" Noel protested. "I can help out just as well as everyone else against them."

"I don't recall calling you useless" Rachel responded. "I'm merely referring to the state you came here in. I seem to recall you being unconscious for whatever reason. Valkenhayn tells me that you were fine shortly before he rescued you."

"Makes sense" Ragna thought, agreeing with Rachel. "You said your friends were among them. Can you honestly say that you can face them without feeling anything for them?"

"Well- I…" she began, remembering how she felt when she was hiding from them. She couldn't bring herself to attack them back then and while she could psyche herself up here, there was no telling if she would lose her cool out there. And not to be cruel to Litchi, Noel thought that as long as she wasn't there, she would still be safe from them here. "I understand" she finally said, stepping down.

"You okay with this Litchi?" Kokonoe asked.

Litchi took a deep breath. "Yes" came her simple reply. She would be lying if she told herself that she wasn't scared but it was their only hope of finding a cure. She felt some relief in knowing an accomplished fighter like Valkenhayn would also be there so she wouldn't be facing them alone.

"Alright then" Kokonoe began. "If there's a problem, come straight back here." Valkenhayn nodded.

* * *

><p>Valkenhayn had teleported himself and Litchi to the Monorail area. Being largely in an open space, there was much less chance of a surprise attack. The two of them remained silent as they looked around. No one was in the immediate vicinity. Seeing no one, they set off quietly in search of a live infected person to catch, preferably one on their own. Their search didn't last too long for the simple fact that someone found them first.<p>

"Boobie lady! You came to feed Tao!" Tao cried out happily as she leapt at them. As she announced her presence, it was easy to dodge her.

"No Tao, we came to stop you" Litchi told her. "We can help you if you come back with us peacefully. We're trying to work on something to cure you all."

Tao looked confused. "Cure? Tao just needs food. Boobie lady's always so nice to Tao so Boobie lady must taste nice too." Litchi watched sadly as her friend approached her with the intent to kill her.

"Tao this isn't you" Litchi tried to reason with her. "I know you always ate a lot but nothing like this. Think about what you've done to everyone just to get food."

"Tao can't help it, Boobie lady" Tao began. "People just taste much better than they used to."

"She won't listen to reason" Valkenhayn said to Litchi. "We have to subdue her." Litchi already knew that it would come to this and solemnly nodded. She just thought that she might have been able to talk some sense into her.

"I'm sorry Tao but you leave us no choice" she said, readying her staff. "I can't reason with you so I have to stop you."

"Food!" Tao yelled as she rushed at them. Litchi sent her staff spinning towards her but Tao easily evaded it. This however was what the two wanted to happen. During her dodge, Valkenhayn lauched a devastating kick to her mid section that she couldn't avoid in time, sending her hurtling away.

"No fair" Tao whined, picking herself up. All she wanted to do was eat. What was wrong with that?

Valkenhayn dashed forward leading with his shoulder to knock her back down before she could fully recover. Not wanting to interfere with his attack, Litchi stayed back but commanded her staff to help create an opening in Tao's defence.

Tao blocked as Valkenhayn landed a hit on her but before she could even attempt to counter, Litchi's staff hit her again allowing Valkenhayn to knock her into the air with an uppercut. As the infected Kaka flailed in the air, Litchi sent her staff after her, continuously striking her before slamming her back down to the ground. This time, she struggled to get back on her feet.

"There's no point in continuing, Tao" Litchi told her sympathetically. "Just let us help you."

"You can help by giving yourselves up" another voice said. Both Litchi and Valkenhayn looked around to see Jin approaching, Yukianesa already drawn. "I knew that following her would pay off. We'll just have to finish you off before the others get here."

"We need to catch one of them quickly" Litchi said to Valkenhayn. "If the others get here as quickly as he did, we won't be able to do anything about them."

"I'll keep him occupied" Valkenhayn replied. "Focus on her." He gestured to Tao. Litchi nodded. Valkenhayn transformed into his wolf form, jumped and dived down at Jin with his claws. He blocked with his sword and slashed at the wolf as he jumped back. Valkenhayn knew that he had to be careful in his wolf form. It involved him being within range of him being bitten and it would be wise to not try to bite at his opponent either.

"You sure you want to face me alone like that?" Jin smirked. "You're unarmed and rely on your claws and fangs. My blade will easily hold you off. Maybe you should have let your friend face me."

"_It's true that I am at a disadvantage against him however Litchi will be better suited to knocking her out with her staff" _he thought. _"I just have to make sure I can reach her in time if there is a turn for the worst."_

* * *

><p>Litchi turned back to Tao who had already sprung towards her. She seemed much happier now that Jin had taken away some of the offense. Litchi blocked with her staff, keeping herself as far away from the Kaka's teeth as possible. While being held back, Tao attempted to kick at Litchi's feet. Knowing that it was Tao's only option to attack her, Litchi adjusted her stance and launched her staff upwards. It struck below her chin and sent her flying back once more.<p>

"Here you go Boobie lady!" Tao pulled a smaller Kaka out from what seemed to be her coat and threw it at her. With very high odds that the Kaka was also infected, Litchi reacted by swinging her staff at it as hard as she could. If she began getting overwhelmed by the smaller kittens she wouldn't be able to fight for long without getting bitten or eaten.

"_I can't remain on the defensive. I have to capture her before any others get here" _Litchi reminded herself. She approached Tao swiftly, deflecting any of her projectiles before spinning the staff around herself as a shield to protect herself from an attack from Tao's claws. Once she tried to slash at her again, Litchi launched the staff downwards, striking her feet. She followed up the attack by swiftly changing the angle of the staff so it sent her into the air. Still able to continue on the offensive, she jumped and kicked Tao back down and into the ground. Each hit brought a cry of pain from the Kaka.

"Mew…" Tao cried weakly, still struggling to get up.

"Sorry Tao" Litchi muttered. "All Green!" From Tao's exact spot, a geyser of fire engulfed her causing her to cry out loudly in pain. Litchi recalled her staff. Surely this was enough to stop her. It was hard enough to bring herself to be so ruthless against her normally kind and playful friend.

"Nyaaa!" Tao yelled as she suddenly emerged through the flame, pouncing at Litchi with all the energy she had left as a last resort. Litchi was taken completely off guard and only just managed to bring her staff up to defend in time. However, Tao's momentum didn't stop as she knocked Litchi back and fell to the ground. Struggling to keep Tao from biting her, Litchi was barely managing to keep her away. With Tao's weight on top of her staff, she felt that she wouldn't be able to hold her back for much longer.

* * *

><p>Valkenhayn continued to swiftly dodge Jin's projectiles in his wolf form, launching attacks every now and then to keep him from figuring out what they were trying to accomplish. Jin was able to read his movements easily whenever Valkenhayn attacked. Being in his wolf form, his attacks could only come from low to the ground or from the air.<p>

"Don't even bother attacking, old man" Jin taunted. "Everything attack you perform is as predictable as the last. It won't be long before I can read your evasive movements too."

"Maybe this will change your tone" he growled, returning to human form. He lunged forwards, forming his claws over his right arm and slashed downwards with terrific force. Jin blocked it and was about to counter only to be stopped by a powerful kick that knocked him back and stunned him. Now that he was defenceless, he swiped low with his other foot and stood, kicking with his first foot again. He once again slashed down, as his attacks became faster, all chaining into each other, finally ending with one final kick that knocked him away.

In the brief moment he had to pause, Valkenhayn suddenly turned when he heard Tao's cry and saw her hurtling towards Litchi, taking her down onto the ground. Valkenhayn was about to intervene when he saw Litchi struggling to hold her back but grimaced as a sword made of ice hit him in the side.

"You're fighting me" Jin told him angrily. "You'll end up like her soon enough." Ignoring him, Valkenhayn wasted no time in transforming into his wolf form once more and charging at Jin who managed to block but not without being pushed back a considerable distance. "Pathetic! I told you everything you do is predictable!" He slashed at Valkenhayn as he bounded back, grazing his side near where the sword had hit him previously. He ignored the pain and sprinted away from Jin to Litchi's location. "Shit, so that's what he was doing!" The attack was just meant to push him back so he couldn't interfere with him helping Litchi. Jin was currently too far away to do anything to stop him.

By this point, Litchi could feel her strength leaving her. Slowly but surely, her staff had been lowering under the weight on it. Even if it was only a few millimetres at a time, Tao was getting close enough to bite her. She briefly looked around and saw Valkenhayn was preoccupied with fighting Jin. She closed her eyes tightly, knowing she was going to be killed or worse, bitten.

Valkenhayn snarled as he crashed into Tao, knocking her away from Litchi. She slowly opened her eyes once she felt her arms drop. Knowing she didn't have time to recover, she got back up, breathing heavily. Getting back up was somewhat difficult as her arms ached and her right shoulder hurt quite considerably. Not having time to ask if she was alright, Valkenhayn returned to human form expecting Jin to be right behind him. Strangely, he wasn't. He was exactly where he was before only this time; there were others around him.

"I knew it! You were holding out on us!" Makoto accused Jin.

"It doesn't matter if he was" Tsubaki began. "They're still alive so we'll be sharing."

"Miss Litchi, you were alive after all" Bang looked at her surprised.

"By that he means, we're glad that you're alive so we can pay you back for slipping away from us earlier" Carl said.

Seeing that they would be in much more danger if they persisted at capturing Tao, Valkenhayn quickly turned to Litchi and warped them both back to the castle.

"And now because you four turned up, they're gone" Jin deadpanned.

"How were we supposed to know you found someone?" Makoto asked angrily.

"We followed you because we thought you found someone that you weren't sharing" Bang told him.

While the three argued, Tsubaki and Carl approached Tao who had picked herself up against a wall. She appeared to be very happy as she chewed on something.

"She got something?" Tsubaki asked.

"Only one bite from the looks of it" Carl assumed. "Wherever the two of them went won't be safe for very long."

**To be continued...**

* * *

><p>Well that's not good, one of them's been bitten. And by not good I mean really not good.<p>

Next time we'll find out what's happened to either Valkenhayn or Litchi.

There are 3 potential answers for you to choose from

1. Litchi - the obvious choice

2. Valkenhayn - the choice for those who think the first choice is so obvious that it must be untrue

3. Both - the choice for everyone else

Try to guess which one. It may surprise you Note that I said 'may' not 'will'.

Well, you'll see next time :D


	11. Undead are still strange

Yeah this chapter came out a bit later than I thought partially because my birthday was somewhere in the last week and I felt that I should take a break for the day. But yeah, here's the chapter anyway.

* * *

><p><strong>Undead are still strange<strong>

"Judging by your silence, I'm guessing that you're not too happy seeing me like this" Terumi assumed, speaking to Relius.

"That depends on how you answer my next question" Relius stated plainly. "What happened to your body?"

Terumi motioned to scratch the back of his head. "Well I hit a little snag with a dead guy who wasn't quite dead so I had to leave my body to stop myself being infected."

"So you just discarded it hoping to pick it up later?" Relius asked.

"Not exactly" Terumi answered. "It was kind of a spur of the moment type thing so I didn't really plan on what to do after I got out of it. And, uh, you might not like this part but uh…" He trailed off.

"Go on" Relius raised an eyebrow hidden by his mask.

"You know all those zombies wandering around picking the city clean?" he asked rhetorically. "They kinda found my body just after I left it so I kinda don't have a body to go back to."

"This is the result of your experiment getting out of hand" Relius told him. "How do you expect to do anything without a material body?"

"I was hoping you'd try and fix that for me" Terumi admitted. "What do you say? Fancy helping out an old friend?"

"I'll start working on it eventually" Relius dismissed. "After you've found a way to end this virus outbreak."

"Oh come on" he complained. "What do you expect me to do without my body?"

"You got yourself into this predicament" Relius said. "It doesn't concern me."

"Hey this is your fault too you know" Terumi accused, pointing at him. "If you didn't chicken out half way through our little excursion, you could have taken my body back here or at least stopped me from messing with that dead guy."

"Maybe so however you will suffer for your experiment backfiring on you until you do something about it" Relius thought it best to just leave him to sort out his own problem. Restoring his body wasn't necessary right now but it would be for later when his experiment would come to a close.

"Shit, how am I supposed to do anything about this without a body?" Terumi asked himself. "Meh, I'll think of something later. Maybe I should head back there and find some living people to help me out."

* * *

><p>Hakumen could do nothing but stand by idly. He had no way of escaping the bindings that Kokonoe had placed him in and as such, had no knowledge of the virus outbreak. Regardless, he was patient. He had waited for far longer periods of time on his own in the Boundary. He wasn't expecting to escape any time soon. He imagined that Kokonoe wouldn't let him go until he was willing to co-operate with what she wanted. He thought that until he sensed a familiar presence approaching.<p>

"I figured you'd be around here somewhere Hakumen" a gruff voice said.

"What brings you here, Grimalkin?" he questioned, watching Jubei carefully.

"I'm here to let you out of course" Jubei replied. "I reckon you don't know what's going on in Kagutsuchi at the moment so I should probably fill you in."

"Oh? What might be happening which warrants you releasing me from your daughter?" Hakumen inquired.

"I'm gonna be brief and say that it's pretty much turned into hell on earth up there" Jubei answered. "There's some sort virus spreading like wildfire."

"A virus?" Hakumen asked, somewhat confused. He couldn't be infected with anything since he was merely a soul bound to armour. "Why should I be concerned with something like that?"

"It's not just your run of the mill virus" Jubei began to explain. "In all my travels, I've never seen anything like it. Whoever gets infected by it wants nothing more than to consume flesh from everyone who's still alive. All it takes to spread is a single bite and right now, there ain't that many people who aren't infected. I 'spose I should just let you see for yourself." Jubei drew his sword and slashed through Hakumen's bindings with ease, releasing him.

"So am I supposed to be your shield?" Hakumen assumed.

"No, nothin' like that" Jubei replied. "You can't be infected so you'll be fine out there."

* * *

><p>"See that?" Jubei gestured to the many bodies that littered the areas of the city. "That's what this virus has done to the city in a couple of hours." Hakumen silently looked around at the countless amounts of bodies. "I've got reason to believe that Terumi's the one behind it."<p>

"It's most likely that this would be his doing" Hakumen commented. "No one else would unleash something that would cause the death of so many."

"Yeah, but I'm gonna leave you to see what you can find out about it around here" Jubei told him. "I'm gonna see if there's anything I can find out outside the city."

"That's all we can do right now until we find out what this is" Hakumen responded.

Jubei nodded. "I haven't got a clue of how they'll react to you since you can't get bitten but if you run into anyone who's infected, try not to kill 'em. We should be able to cure 'em later." Hakumen responded by readying Ookami. "I guess I'll see you sometime in the future."

"Farewell Grimalkin" Hakumen said as he walked away. After watching Jubei leave, Hakumen slowly explored the city on his own.

* * *

><p>"I sense Valkenhayn returning" Rachel noted as the four of them waited patiently for their return. Valkenhayn appeared with Litchi a few seconds later. From the look on Valkenhayn's face and the fact that no one was with them, it was easy to see that they weren't successful.<p>

"My apologies, milady" Valkenhayn apologised. "We were unsuccessful in capturing one of them." Kokonoe took notice of Valkenhayn's injured side.

"What happened?" she asked.

"They proved to be quite tenacious and we were eventually ambushed" Valkenhayn explained. "I can only apologise for not succeeding in such an important task."

"It's fine" Kokonoe said. "It wasn't exactly the easiest plan and- hey Litchi, you okay?' She stopped upon noticing Litchi was breathing heavily and clutching her shoulder with a bloodied hand. She shook her head nervously as she moved her hand away, revealing an unmistakable wound from a bite on her shoulder. Everyone's eyes widened.

"I'm sorry professor" was all she said.

"Shit, Noel, how long does it take to infect someone?" Kokonoe swiftly asked her, remembering her saying that it didn't take long to succumb to infection.

"Uh, I'm not sure" Noel began, thinking back. "Not much more than ten seconds at the most." She didn't know exactly how long it took since that particular point hadn't exactly worried her when she witnessed it. Kokonoe turned back to Litchi, who still appeared to be attempting to fight it off.

"It's been more than ten seconds already" Ragna noted. "We have to send her back before she tries to kill us."

"Sorry Litchi but that's all we can do for you right now" Kokonoe agreed solemnly. She couldn't help but feel it was her fault. First Lambda, then Tager and now Litchi had all been met with a terrible fate because of what she told them to do.

"Wait" Litchi said, still breathing heavily.

"There is no reason for us to wait" Rachel responded. "Any moment now, you'll turn and attempt to devour us."

"No" she began again when she realised that they didn't understand what she meant. "You wanted us to capture one of them. I'm here becoming like them right now. I can be the one you run experiments on."

"She's right" Noel said.

"Yeah, just get her into that cage quick" Ragna agreed.

"How the hell have you even lasted this long?" Kokonoe thought aloud as she guided Litchi who was unable to make her own way to the cage due to the pain she was going through. "From what Noel said, you should've been infected some time ago."

"I don't know" Litchi replied. She coughed violently for a short period of time. "I can feel it affecting me. Everything hurts and the hunger keeps growing." She took Lao Jiu out from his normal position in her hair, allowing it to fall out of place. She handed him to Kokonoe, wanting to protect him from herself when she became fully infected. Kokonoe passed him on to Noel, the latter briefly looking overly happy before remembering that what was happening to Litchi was more important.

Kokonoe took a syringe out from her sleeve and drew some blood from Litchi's arm. "No offence Litchi but this is really gonna help us a lot."

Litchi nodded and gave a weak smile. "I understand." Another coughing fit followed but this one didn't subside as quickly. When it stopped, she fell silent, facing downward. Everyone knew what it meant and were all glad to be protected from her by the cage. She slowly reached her arm out and grabbed on of the bars of the cage. She appeared to pull at the bar as if trying to pull it off.

"That thing's foolproof right?" Ragna asked Rachel.

"Quite so" she replied.

"Let me out!" Litchi suddenly yelled, uncharacteristically angry. She continued pulling at the bars, her face contorted with rage knowing that there were people nearby and she couldn't get to them.

"Well this is certainly different for your standards Litchi" Kokonoe commented almost jokingly.

"You did this to me!" Litchi seethed. "Get in here so I can return the favour."

"I'll pass on that" she said nonchalantly, turning away so she could ignore the rest of her ranting.

"She held it off for just over a minute" Noel informed Kokonoe. She had been counting how long it was taking after she had been asked about how long it took normally.

"It's not long but how can she have kept herself together for that much longer than ten seconds?" Kokonoe thought aloud. "It can't just be willpower."

"Maybe she just had some sort of resistance to it" Ragna guessed.

"No, she'd be asymptomatic if that were the case and since this has never happened before, I doubt she'd have a resistance to it specific to her" Kokonoe assumed.

"You already drew some blood from her" Rachel reminded her. "There's no need to make assumptions."

"Yeah, you're right. I need to take this back to the labs" Kokonoe replied, motioning to the syringe. "Rachel, you're the only one who needs to be there with me since we know the majority of the labs are safe. You guys can stay here and watch her" she said referring to Ragna, Noel and Valkenhayn.

**To be continued...**

* * *

><p>Remember when I said Litchi wouldn't be getting any special benefits despite the fact that she's my favourite character? Is this chapter proof of that? I think so. And yeah, if you didn't know already, there are some personality changes when the zombiesinfected want food.

Initially, to show the infection had fully sunk in, Litchi was going to vomit blood similar to the people at the beginning of 28 Days Later did but then I remembered I didn't make anyone else do that in Noel's survivor chapter. So here we are with Litchi fulfilling the role of 'Mailer' from the same film (Mailer was an infected soldier in the film that they captured for testing). Except in the film, their captive was chained by the ankle. I thought that a cage worked better overall.

Also Hakumen makes an appearance with Jubei in this chapter. Similar to the games, Jubei won't be appearing very often but Hakumen will appear later for sure.

Anyway, chapter's done. See you later!


	12. A Savage Soul

Sorry for the wait everyone. I've had little to no time to work on this story at all. Anyway, that's irrelevant since the chapter's done now. Here it is.

* * *

><p><strong>A Savage Soul<strong>

"So you guys had your fill?" Terumi asked the infected group. "What am I saying? Of course you haven't. That's the whole point of this infection." In spite of being told by Relius to stop the plague, he had been finding groups of survivors and directing the infected straight to them.

"I still don't know why you're helping us after we ate your body but I'm not complaining" Makoto admitted, wiping blood from her mouth.

"Ghost guy's a good guy after all" Taokaka agreed.

"As long as we don't have to share with you, I'm fine with him helping" Bang said.

"I'm just doing what I can to help" Terumi shrugged. "Well, I'll be taking my leave to search some more. I'll be right back." He vanished straight after leaving the group to finish their meal.

* * *

><p>Litchi, still as angry as she was a little while ago, had given up trying to break her way out of her confinement. If anything, the fact that she couldn't get out only enraged her further.<p>

"Let me out already!" she yelled.

"Shut up!" Ragna replied angrily. He was getting sick of her constant complaining. "If the cage didn't give it away, we're not letting you take a bite out of us."

"I don't want to infect you. Just cut one of your fingers or something: You don't get infected and I get to eat. That's fair" Litchi replied attempting to strike a bargain. "Please, I'm begging you!"

Ragna groaned. "Just stop. This is getting pathetic."

"Litchi, you're not like this" Noel said to her, stepping closer to try to show that she meant no harm. "You can fight it."

"You don't know what it's like" she retorted, suddenly reaching her arm out to try to grab Noel as she stepped a little closer. Noel jumped back quickly enough to avoid being grabbed. Litchi sat down, annoyed. "I don't want to eat because I'm hungry, I _need_ to eat something. Just seeing all of you makes me want to see what your flesh tastes like."

"That's something new" Ragna noted. He thought that it might be something worth mentioning to Kokonoe.

"Might I suggest something that doesn't come from one of us to eat?" Valkenhayn offered.

"No!" Litchi complained. "Just a taste from any one of you, please!"

"You've only just been infected, how can you want to eat us already?" Noel asked.

Litchi shrugged. "I don't know. That's just how it works I guess."

* * *

><p>"It's just like we thought: it's not even close to anything we've seen before" Kokonoe summarised.<p>

"Anything else you've noticed about it?" Rachel questioned. "Perhaps a glimmer of hope that will prevent its spread?"

"Like I said, it's nothing like I've seen, meaning a cure won't be coming any time soon" Kokonoe stated. "Right now, I can't tell what it is that drives whoever's infected to eat the flesh of the living. All that should happen from what I see is skin decay. Litchi's still not got to that stage yet so it's not instantaneous. If I can find out what makes them want to eat, I might be able to at least find a way to put an end to their insanity."

"So what are you suggesting?" Rachel asked.

"We know how they act when there's something they want to eat nearby" Kokonoe explainedg. "Litchi's not going to be getting to any of us so I think we should observe her behaviour for now. We might be able to learn something."

"I hope we do sometime soon" Rachel commented as she created a portal to take them back to the castle.

* * *

><p>"Okay, here's the plan" Kokonoe began. "Since I can't get anything groundbreaking from her blood, I suggest e take shifts and observe her behaviour to see if we can learn something. Now I know it's going to be tedious but we can't exactly do anything else right now." The only response that came from all of them was a nod. It was indeed going to be tedious. So far Litchi hadn't been doing anything different that the ones first infected.<p>

Ragna's shift - Day 1

Ragna was given the first shift for no apparent reason. For lack of better things to do, he sat down and began cleaning his sword. Litchi wasn't really doing anything worth noting either.

"This isn't exactly productive is it" Litchi stated, sounding bored.

"My thoughts exactly" Ragna replied. "Unless you can think of anything better to do, I'm gonna sit here until my shift's over."

"You could let me out and watch my behaviour from there" Litchi suggested.

"Yeah, if I wanted to die along with everyone else, I might consider it" he replied, sarcasm dripping from every word.

"I might not make such bad suggestions if I wasn't so hungry" Litchi said.

"There's plenty that we can give you but you don't want any of it" he responded. "Since that's the case, we can't help you with that."

"Like I keep saying, give me something like a finger" she ordered. "That's nothing to you. You lost a whole arm. What difference will one finger make?"

"I'd rather not give away my fingers to be eaten by some undead freak" he deadpanned.

"Infected is probably the better description" she said.

"Whatever."

* * *

><p><span>Noel's shift - Day 5<span>

Now that Noel had possession of Lao Jiu, she was trying her best to not let her fondness for pandas overcome her concern for the current situation.

"You can give him back any time, you know" Litchi said. She didn't care if she did end up eating the small panda. As long as she could eat something she was fine with it.

"I'll give him back after we cure you" Noel replied, gently caressing Lao Jiu."You'll need him once we cure everyone so you can help your... uh, friend" she carried on, thinking of what the best thing to refer to Arakune as.

"I don't care about that right now. Just give me something so I can eat!" Litchi retorted.

"Never thought I'd hear her say that" Kokonoe smirked, overhearing her.

* * *

><p><span>Rachel's shift - Day 9<span>

Rachel sat at her regular table, enjoying her tea as usual. Her usual teatime was frequently interrupted by Litchi pleading for food like a common beggar.

"How pathetic" she commented.

"I'd stop if you actually listened to me" Litchi replied.

"I don't see a reason for why I should listen to what you have to say" Rachel dismissed. "Everything you come out with will no doubt return to the topic of food."

"I thought I told everyone some time ago that I can't help it" Litchi replied.

"I recall Ragna mentioning earlier that you have no interest in the types of food that one would consider normal" she thought back. "As I am sure he told you, if you don't want the types of food we're offering you, there's nothing we can do for you. Now if you don't mind, I'll return to my tea."

* * *

><p><span>Kokonoe's shift - Day 15<span>

Kokonoe admitted that watching Litchi's behaviour became even more tedious with every passing day. She hadn't done anything out of the ordinary so she was beginning to think that this was a waste of time. All that had happened in the past few weeks was the inevitable skin decay. That was until Kokonoe noticed something very out of the ordinary.

"What the hell are you doing now?" she asked Litchi who appeared to be examining her left arm. Litchi ignored her and continued with her odd activity. Eventually she bit into her arm as if she would have bitten someone who was uninfected. "Hey, stop that!" Kokonoe picked up Litchi's staff and jabbed at her with it. Litchi ignored it and continued. The others also watched what was going on. "Noel, you can use a binding ars, right?" Noel nodded and used said ars on Litchi to bind her arms.

"What do you want now?" Litchi complained, struggling to break out of her bindings. "You won't feed me so what's wrong with feeding myself?"

"Why are you doing that?" Noel asked. "I heard that infected people tasted terrible to each other."

"Obviously you're mistaken" Litchi replied. "From what I actually managed to get from it, my arm didn't taste bad at all."

"Maybe you misheard them earlier" Ragna said to Noel. She shook her head.

"No, the exact words I heard were 'I don't want to remember how bad that taste was. I almost threw up after one bite'" she recalled. It was hard for her to forget since she had been fleeing for her life from her own friends when she heard it. Kokonoe moved so she could examine the arm. There were several teeth marks on it, but she hadn't bitten a large chunk out of it. Interestingly, unlike the majority of the rest of her skin, the skin on her left arm hadn't decayed at all. For a start, she was amazed that what Noel told her weeks ago actually turned out to be useful and now this.

"You're probably right about that" she said. "But this arm hasn't decayed at all meaning somehow, her left arm wasn't infected. Unfortunately, now that she's bitten it, it's probably going to end up like the rest of her."

"I just wish I'd have noticed it earlier" Litchi muttered. "The only time I get to eat, ruined."

"I highly doubt that this is a coincidence" Rachel said, ignoring her.

"Yeah, first off, she didn't get fully infected as quickly as the others and now part of her turned out to not even be infected after 2 weeks" Ragna agreed.

"Did her blood show any signs of this?" Valkenhayn asked.

"No, I would have done something about it by now if it had" Kokonoe replied as she turned back toward Litchi. "Well Litchi, I don't know why but you seem to be an exception to all the criteria we know of." Litchi ignored her, as she was still very annoyed about losing her first chance to eat something. "It can't hurt to take a blood sample from that arm too since you're not going be able to bite me if I do." Despite Kokonoe's words, Litchi attempted to bite Kokonoe as she took another blood sample from her left arm.

"I suppose I can accompany you to your labs again while you examine this sample" Rachel said to Kokonoe.

**To be continued...**

* * *

><p>First reason for making Litchi not be infected for her first appearance: she's my favourite character.<p>

Second reason: So I could make a character use her staff as a poking stick.

No joke about that one.

But anyway, Litchi seems to be showing rather odd symptoms that differ from other zombies. No it's not because she's my favourite character. There's a legit reason for it which we'll get to eventually.

And good old Hazama/Terumi's up to his old tricks again. What were you expecting him to do? Help find a cure? I think not.

Anyways, see y'all next time!


	13. One big, unhappy reunion

Haven't done a disclaimer since the first chapter so I'll do one now:

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the characters, story or anything from Blazblue or any other things I end up making inadvertent references to.

Now that that's out of the way, since today is Halloween, I thought I should upload something since this story involves things that you might find in horror movies (I say 'might' despite the fact I know you 'will' find similar stuff in horror movies.)

In semi-unrelated news, I participated in a Blazblue tournament the other day for the first time :D. Sadly, I only got to round 2. As if Arakune's matchup against Lambda wasn't bad enough, my opponent was one of the top Lambda players in the UK who also holds the world record for the most Blazblue wins in 60 minutes. I basically lost before I started. Oh well. It was fun :D

**Optional music: **Hazama's theme: youtube. com/ watch?v=5fZOoeHFG6s

Back to story related stuff: Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

><p><strong>One big, unhappy reunion<strong>

Some time passed as Ragna, Noel and Valkenhayn patiently waited for Rachel and Kokonoe to return from Sector Seven. As usual, Litchi's pleas for escape persisted only this time, she was struggling against the new bindings that had been placed on her.

"I don't feel hungry anymore" Litchi told them. "You can let me out now."

"Yeah right" Ragna scoffed. "We haven't heard that one before."

"My arm's fine isn't it? Now I feel fine." She continued to try to convince them.

"We saw you try and tear your own arm off not too long ago" he remarked. "On top of that, you said you wanted to eat because you needed to."

"I didn't even eat any of it" Litchi replied. "I might have got some blood from it but that's all."

"Sucks to be you then doesn't it" he commented. He turned as he noticed Valkenhayn looking around cautiously.

"What's wrong?" Noel asked when she noticed as well.

"I sense someone else's presence" he said.

"Nice to see your old age hasn't dulled your senses" another voice said, coming seemingly from nowhere. Following the voice, a familiar form appeared before the group.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Ragna scowled, placing a hand over his sword. Valkenhayn also prepared to attack the new visitor: Terumi.

"Oh hey Rags" he smirked. "Nice to see you haven't been infected. Your hate for me is something I probably couldn't live without." Ragna merely scowled.

"I suggest you leave immediately before madam Rachel returns" Valkenhayn warned him.

"Whoa, time out old man" Terumi waved his arms attempting to stop the hostilities. "I'm not that much of a threat to you guys like this, am I?" Ragna and Valkenhayn admitted that this was true but still remained wary. "Now, let's see who's you've rounded up." Terumi looked around. Ah, Lieutenant Vermillion, you're here too. I expected you to be one of the first to be infected" Noel looked confused.

"Do I know you?" she asked the ghost.

"Oh right, you don't recognise me like this" Terumi remembered. "Never mind then, it's not really important. I suppose those two would introduce me as Terumi. Maybe you should remember it."

"How do you know me?" Noel questioned.

"Don't bother" Ragna said bluntly. "Just ignore him"

"Well for once I'm not here to make your life a misery Rags" Terumi continued. "I came here to see what the vampire was doing about Kagutsuchi's little problem."

"I think she'd be just as happy as I am to see you right now" Ragna replied. "And I doubt you came here to ask her for help either."

"That's where you're wrong" Terumi smirked. "See, I need all the help I can get to stop this virus. I've been on the receiving end of everyone's bitching because I let it spread too much."

"Wait, you started that virus?" Ragna interjected.

"Come on, Rags. I would have thought that was obvious" he replied. "Yeah, I started it. And it's not just my fault you know. You could have helped me out a little by at least stopping the damn thing from spreading. That's why I sent all the Librarium soldiers out there." He gestured to Noel. "But no, they had to let themselves get infected."

"Why would you do that?" Noel questioned. "You created it and sent us out there to stop it when you knew it had spread too far. You practically sent us out there to let ourselves get infected." She readied Bolverk to attack him. Because of him, her friends and everyone else in the city had been infected.

"What can I say? It was an experiment" the ghost admitted. "Those brainless cats will eat anything given to 'em. Even if it is contaminated with who knows what." Ragna slashed down on him before he could continue talking. The attack cut him in half but, being a ghost, he reformed seconds later. "Would you mind not doing that? It's kind of annoying." Before he could continue, he was shot multiple times by Noel. Once again, he reformed in seconds. "Ugh, not you too" he groaned. "I don't know why I bother sometimes."

"Neither do I Terumi" Rachel said. Mere seconds ago, she had returned with Kokonoe. Terumi's appearance was unexpected for both of them.

"I see you brought a friend with you" Terumi noted. "If you brought her along with you, you must be working on a cure for my experiment." Before either of them responded, he began again. "Yeah, yeah, I started it. I heard enough of that from these guys. Deal with it and move on."

"Why am I not surprised that you started it?" Kokonoe asked rhetorically.

"Because you all know me too well" he shrugged. "But I came here to see what the vampire club were up to. Any progress on a cure? It would help me out a lot if you had for reasons that I won't go into again."

"Does it look like we have?" Kokonoe asked, pointing at Litchi who had merely watched the entire conversation in silence.

"I thought humans didn't make very good pets" he said, mocking Litchi's current situation. "Especially when you keep them in confined spaces and bind them. It'd be a shame if she were to escape or if I let her out."

"You said it'd help you out if we were working on a cure. I don't think that there are many others left in Kagutsuchi doing the same thing so I'd think twice about letting her out" Kokonoe told him.

"You guys are no fun" Terumi sighed. "Well if that's the case, I'll take my leave."

"You came here to ask if I had made any progress in finding a cure and then leave?" Rachel questioned. "I highly doubt that that was your only intention."

"Think what you want but I'm still gonna leave" he replied. "I suppose I'll be seeing you all again sometime in the future." He vanished straight after.

"I don't buy his reasoning either" Ragna said. "He's up to something."

"Yeah but even though he started it, I don't think he'll be doing too much" Kokonoe thought. "It's been weeks since he started it and he's only just thought to see what Rachel was doing. Moving on to more important matters, the blood sample we got from her this time just raises more questions. It's completely clean. There were no signs of infection anywhere."

"Doesn't it seem strange that only her left arm wasn't infected? "Noel asked. "Surely the infection would have spread all over."

"That's exactly where the question lies" Rachel answered. "This clearly isn't a natural occurrence for any kind virus that travels in the bloodstream."

"Wait, you mean it's travelling in her blood but just stops when it gets to her arm?" Ragna asked, confused. "That doesn't even make sense."

"It shouldn't even be possible and since this and the resistance to the infection happened to the same person, there's no doubt that they're related" Rachel said. "Now Kokonoe, would you mind explaining what the alarms in the labs meant?"

"They haven't managed to break in have they?" Noel asked.

"No, it's more like someone's broken out" Kokonoe began. "Hakumen's escaped. I don't know how he did it or what he intends to do but I'm thinking we can bring him here."

"Great, you're going to bring another masked freak here to try and kill me" Ragna groaned.

"Considering the current situation, I think he'll be willing to let you live until we put an end to this outbreak" Rachel told him. "Valkenhayn, see if you can track down Mr. Hero and bring him back here."

"Yes madam" he answered.

"Sorry but I can't really give you any clues as to where he'll be right now" Kokonoe explained. Valkenhayn bowed shortly before he left. Kokonoe sighed. If she would have thought to find Hakumen sooner, she may have been able to save Lambda and Tager or prevent Litchi from being met with a terrible fate.

* * *

><p>As they now had Terumi searching for the remaining uninfected, the infected group didn't feel the need to search for themselves anymore. The brief times of sanity for them were occurring much less frequently and for shorter durations as the days passed so they at least didn't have to suffer from guilt. Terumi was providing them food for his amusement and he couldn't exactly steal anything he found anyway for obvious reasons. As a result, they always looked forward to his return when they were hungry. Speaking of which…<p>

"Hey everyone, you'll be happy to know my search was successful" Terumi greeted them as he appeared before them out of nowhere.

"Where are they?" Carl asked, eager as everyone else.

"Hold on for a moment. We're going to wait a little bit before paying them a visit."

"Why?" Jin asked plainly.

"These guys will be expecting me to go back right now to pull off whatever plan they thought I was working on" the ghost explained. "If we wait for a little while, they won't be so prepared for what I have in store for them."

**To be continued...**

* * *

><p>One of the things I thought I should keep in the story from my initial thoughts was HazamaTerumi meeting the uninfected group and then selling them out because... well just because he is who he is.

Expect Terumi to bring the infected characters to the Alucard Castle sometime soon.

But yeah, read, review, alert, favourite this story or whatever.

See ya!


	14. Dead days

Well here we are with the next chapter. I'm still getting work to do to meet deadlines etc. but I'm getting it done on time (just about). In my short periods of resting, I work on this story. It helps me relax and get out of the mindset for hard work :P

In the meantime, I've discovered that the lychee is an awesome fruit (it just tastes so good!). This did not have anything to do with Litchi being my favourite character and wanting to try the fruit that she was named after because I first tried them before I knew what Blazblue was and since I'm most likely blind for not noticing them in shops before, I've only just found them in shops and now I can't stop eating them.

Now how's that for a random tale?

**Optional music: **(Best played at the first mention of Terumi) Black Hole Super Power theme from Advance Wars: youtube. com/ watch?v=W69P0NhkIEg

Moving on, here's the chapter.

* * *

><p><strong>Dead days<strong>

Days passed at progressively slower rates at the castle. Kokonoe and Rachel were often at the labs still trying to find something they could use as a cure from the blood that they took from Litchi. Valkenhayn was still searching for Hakumen with no signs that he would be coming back soon. This meant that Ragna, Noel and Litchi were the only ones who were constantly present. This was mostly a precaution though. If they left Litchi alone, there was no telling if she would escape while no one was watching her. It seemed unlikely but not impossible.

"I know this is hard to believe but I don't feel hungry anymore" Litchi told them.

"Just shut up" Ragna groaned. "You've been saying that for days and I'm getting sick of it."

"I mean it this time" she carried on. "I'll admit I was lying all the other times but I'm telling the truth this time."

"Litchi, we can't let you out" Noel said. "You may be telling the truth but we can't be sure. I know you're a good person but from what we know, the virus makes it so you don't think straight."

"Yeah, as long as you can get your hands on something to eat, I don't think you really care what you have to do to get it" Ragna concluded.

"What do I have to do to make you believe me?" Litchi asked.

"We have no way of knowing if you're telling the truth or not so you can just stay there and keep your mouth shut for now" Ragna replied.

"It's not exactly hard for me to stay here" Litchi muttered. The bindings on her arms kept her from getting up so she had been lying in the same place for days.

* * *

><p>"I still don't understand how the virus just stops like that in her arm" Kokonoe thought aloud. "It could be to do with her connection to the Boundary but I'm not sure."<p>

"There must be an outside factor that you're missing. Perhaps you should attempt to find out what it is before making assumptions" Rachel suggested.

"That's easy for you to say" Kokonoe remarked. "If I can find out what it is that's causing this, there's a chance that we can use it as a cure."

"That seems likely" Rachel mused.

"I have an idea of what we can do but it's not exactly practical. I'm not even sure if we'd be able to tell if it was happening or if it would even work" Kokonoe began. "Since the virus travels in her blood but stops at her arm, if we waited for long enough the uninfected blood would eventually reach the rest of her body and effectively cure her."

"This doesn't sound like one of your better ideas, Kokonoe" Rachel said. "As you say, there's no telling how long this process may take."

"You're right" she admitted, striking a line through the idea she had written down on a notepad. She flicked through earlier pages of the notes until she reached a page littered with notes. It was most likely the main page for her notes on the current situation. "Before the blood reaches her arm, it's infected but when it gets there, the infection somehow gets filtered out until it leaves the arm. Then it just gets infected again." She sighed deeply. "Other than her connection to the Boundary, there's nothing different about Litchi to anyone else but if it was that connection that was doing this, her whole body should be showing no signs of infection."

"Maybe you should ask her about her actions before this outbreak occurred" Rachel suggested.

"That's probably the best course of action but she hasn't exactly been very cooperative recently" Kokonoe thought. "But what other choice is there? Alright, let's go back."

* * *

><p>"Found anything this time?" Ragna asked.<p>

"Unfortunately, no" Rachel answered him. "This time, we need some answers from Miss Faye-Ling regarding her activities prior to the outbreak."

"Anything worth noting that you did before any of this happened Litchi?" Kokonoe questioned her.

"Other than look around the sewers I haven't done anything out of the ordinary" she replied.

"Damn it" Kokonoe muttered. She was somewhat surprised by her being cooperative but that wasn't the point. "You sure you're not forgetting something? What about the day when it started? What did you do then?"

"I went to Lost Town to look for clues before I was spotted by a large group of them" she recalled. "They chased me into the sewers until Lotte attacked me. He tried to eat me but then let me go. After that I was brought here."

"_She did say she wasn't attacked when he tried to eat her"_ Kokonoe thought. _"We don't have any other leads so this is all we can work with for now."_ She turned back to the others. "This might not sound like the best theory I've had for a while but I think Arakune's involved with what's been happening to her regarding the virus."

"So what now, you're thinking of bringing him back here?" Ragna questioned.

"Maybe" was the simple reply. Ragna groaned. First she intended to bring Hakumen here and now she was thinking of bringing Arakune back. He wondered if he was going to be able to keep himself alive with the two of them here. "If it is his involvement that slowed the progression of the virus in her, there's a chance that we can make a cure out of it."

"Good luck finding him then" Ragna shrugged. "You might be on to something with that but all you have to do is ask her how much of a pain in the ass it is to find him" he said gesturing to Litchi.

"Oh, am I interrupting you're little discussion?" another voice said. Everyone instantly turned to see Terumi had just appeared. "I'd hate to stop your trail of thought but I think you've got bigger things to worry about right now."

"What the hell do you want now?" Ragna asked irritably.

Terumi sighed. Do I have to repeat everything to everyone around here? I said that you've got bigger things to worry about."

"What are you up to?" Rachel looked at him warily wondering what he was scheming.

"Nothing much except for this" He made a gesture and another portal opened. Everyone's eyes widened.

"You bastard" Kokonoe scowled.

"When this is over, I'm gonna tear you apart painfully" Ragna threatened, drawing his weapon. Out from the portal stepped Jin, Taokaka, Makoto, Tsubaki, Bang and Carl.

Terumi laughed maniacally. "What's wrong everyone? I thought you'd be happy to see these guys again. They certainly were."

"So this is where you escaped to, Brother" Jin smiled darkly. "I had a feeling we'd find you again."

"Major, Tsubaki, Makoto" Noel whispered. This time she wasn't afraid to attack them. This time, she was afraid of the fact that they were outnumbered now that Valkenhayn was gone and Litchi would try to attack them too.

"Nice to see you again, Noel" Tsubaki greeted her uninfected friend.

"Yeah, we've got some catching up to do over lunch" Makoto smirked.

"Well, I'll leave you guys here to talk about your differences" Terumi said. "See you all later!" Terumi instantly vanished.

"Any time would be nice Rachel" Kokonoe said to her. Knowing she couldn't fight them, Kokonoe needed to get out of harms way as soon as possible.

"Go on, get out of here" Ragna told Rachel. "We know she's the only one smart enough to fix this and if you get infected, we're all dead anyway We'll do what we can to stop these guys."

"I would appreciate it if you didn't let my castle become overrun" Rachel said, creating a portal for herself and Kokonoe.

"Not exactly the easiest task you could set us" Ragna smirked.

"Do at least try to stay alive you two" she told them as she and Kokonoe stepped through the portal.

"Looks like they just left you here to die" Tsubaki commented.

"Do you really want to go to all the trouble of fighting us off when you can just accept your fate and give up?" Bang asked.

"If you just give up now, we can at least make you die painlessly first" Carl offered.

"Do you have some sort of plan?" Noel asked Ragna.

"Yeah, one: Get inside, now!" He dragged Noel until she started running by herself into the castle with the crowd in pursuit.

"Anyone, a little help here!" Litchi called to the crowd, attempting to be heard over them. She watched as they ignored her and continued chasing the others. Maybe they didn't feel like sharing any more than they had to.

"Why's Boobie lady in a cage?" a curious Taokaka asked as she stopped by her.

"They locked me in here. Do you think you can let me out?" Litchi asked. Tao saw no harm in letting her out. After all, she was infected so she would only help them.

"Don't bother" Tsubaki grabbed Tao to pull her away before she could help her escape from her confinement. "If we let her out, we have to share with her too. Sharing two of them between the six of us is enough.

"But Boobie lady will help us find them" Tao whined as she struggled against Tsubaki's grip to let Litchi out. Eventually, she managed to get out of her grip and returned to the cage. Tsubaki sighed as she left to follow the others into the castle, leaving Tao behind. If they managed to get Ragna and Noel before Tao returned, they weren't sharing with her.

"Don't worry Boobie lady, Tao will help you" Tao said happily as she began picking the lock. It didn't take her long to open it and free her.

"Thank you Tao, now let's go" Litchi thanked her. She noticed her staff lying abandoned on the ground and decided to take it despite not having Lao Jiu with her.

**To be continued...**

* * *

><p>This certainly isn't good for our heroes. Ragna and Noel have been left to do what they can about the zombies while Kokonoe and Rachel have teleported away to safety.<p>

Reasons why only those two got away:

1. Kokonoe is the only one who appears to be smart enough to stop the virus

2. Rachel allows the group to warp to other places. If she stayed around to fight and got infected, there'd be nowhere to hide

3. I don't know if Rachel can teleport several people at once. For the purpose of this chapter, Terumi can but I'm just going to say that Rachel can't just because it would make the whole chapter pointless if they all teleported away leaving the infected with nothing to eat.

4. Because last stand style fights are always awesome

Next time, we'll see Ragna and Noel battling the infected horde to survive.

Stay tuned, the next chapter is almost finished!


	15. Spinning Plates

Well maybe this chapter wasn't uploaded as soon as I thought but 3 days is fine, right? Right?

Spinning Plates: A term used to describe having to keep a handle on multiple difficult situations at one time ie. not being bitten/killed, protecting the castle, killing/incapacitating zombies

**Optional music: **Winds of Madness - Wesker's theme from Resident Evil 5: youtube. com/ watch?v=3OLax-NenP8

* * *

><p><strong>Spinning Plates<strong>

An unconscious Taokaka lay in front of the castle.

"Sorry Tao but I can't let you interfere."

* * *

><p>"What's the plan now?" Noel asked as they ran through the corridors in an attempt to lose their pursuers.<p>

"There isn't one" Ragna admitted. "They outnumber us six to two. We're only going to be able to hold 'em off for a little while. Sorry to break this to you but we're probably gonna die right here."

Noel didn't want to believe it but he was right. There was no way they could defeat all of them. The question was not if they would die, but when. She didn't want to die but knew it was inevitable. She could die a coward or die knowing that she did her best to save humanity. She nodded as she continued to follow Ragna through the castle.

"Do you know where you're going?" Noel asked as soon as the question came to mind.

"Nope" was the simple reply

"Then what was the point of coming in here?" Noel questioned.

"It buys us some time and gives us a better chance of surviving for a little longer. They can't all attack us at once in here. When we have no choice but to fight, try to take out Jin first. If he freezes one of us, we're done for." Noel nodded. Yukianesa was especially dangerous in this situation. If even a part of their body was frozen, that would be all they needed to get the one bite necessary to incapacitate them. The infected didn't appear to want to infect them. They wanted to tear them apart and eat them alive.

After some time of running, the infected were still right behind them. There was no point in attempting to run into one of the rooms just in case there was no immediate exit available. Eventually, the inevitable happened.

"No, not now" Noel whispered. It was such a cliché but that didn't stop it from happening to them: they had encountered a dead end. Thinking about it, it was only a matter of time before it happened.

"Shit" Ragna cursed. "Get ready. This is gonna be a hell of a fight."

"You can forget about dying painlessly after you put us through that" Carl said, having just caught up with the rest of the group. None of them were in the mood to do more than they had to to get the food they wanted.

"Don't worry, we'll still kill you. It'll just be more painful than you'd want it to be" Makoto agreed.

"You say it like we're going to sit back and let you kill us" Ragna scoffed.

"Why put yourself through more ordeals?" Bang questioned. "You both obviously wasted most of your energy to just run away from us."

"We'll fight to hold you off for as long as possible" Noel said confidently.

"Why bother?" Jin asked. "Do you expect those two to find a cure within the next few minutes and come back to rescue you?"

"Who can say?" Ragna shrugged. "They should be coming back here soon with our secret weapon." It was unlikely that such a trick would work but he thought that there was a slim chance that Rachel would return and take them to safety.

"You're lying" Tsubaki assumed. "If you had something to use against us, they would have come back by now."

"You don't know that" Noel continued Ragna's bluff. "You don't know exactly what it is."

"Enough!" Bang yelled. "It doesn't matter. If such a weapon does exist, it's not here so we can still kill you now before it's brought here."

"Any last words?" Jin asked, drawing his sword.

"You ready?" Ragna said to Noel who responded with a nod. "Just don't go after me if you get bitten."

"Don't joke like that" Noel replied. The humour wasn't needed when they were about to die.

"Sorry" he ran a hand through his hair. "Five on two, huh? I like those odds" he smirked, holding the Blood-Scythe ready. The group briefly looked confused before they realized Tao wasn't with them. She'd probably catch up eventually.

In their brief confusion, Ragna charged directly at them with Noel providing covering fire. As he said earlier, he was currently focusing on Jin. The sooner they could get rid of him the better. Jin wasn't expecting the attacks from both of them and failed to block in time. Before the others could attack, Ragna grabbed Jin by the collar of his uniform and threw him straight at Bang, knocking him over too.

"Don't just stand there!" Tsubaki berated the others who just watched the whole event occur. "Take them down!" She, Carl and Makoto advanced on Ragna. Ragna swung his sword directly at them. The width of the corridor prevented them from countering the strike. Tsubaki was hit by it while Carl jumped back in time to avoid it. However he didn't expect Makoto to roll underneath and attempt to attack Noel. Noel managed to block Makoto's attack and hold her away from her so she couldn't be bitten with Bolverk.

"Trying to stop us Noel? Some friend you are" Makoto said, attempting to make her falter.

"Major Kisaragi was right, what kind of friend tries to kill their friends?" Noel replied. "You and Tsubaki were my friends before this happened. Once it's over, everything will be back to normal."

"Stop trying to talk sense into them!" Ragna yelled at her, knocking Makoto away with a direct hit to the side. "They're zombies. They don't care what you say as long as they can eat a piece of you."

"It would make it easier for us if they wanted to help us try to cure them" Noel sighed.

"Worry about that later. Let's go, quickly" he once again grabbed her arm and dragged her along briefly. "There's an opening. I don't know about you but I'm not too keen on dying just yet." With Makoto, Jin and Bang still recovering, they just needed to get past Carl and Tsubaki so they could continue to elude them.

"You're not getting past!" Carl threw himself at Ragna attempting to grab onto him. Ragna briefly crouched then swung his sword upwards, easily knocking him into the nearest wall. Before Tsubaki could hit Ragna while he was vulnerable, Noel blocked a slash that would have cut his leg deeply with one of her guns.

"Sorry Tsubaki" Noel muttered as she swiftly jabbed the other gun into Tsubaki's stomach, winding her so they had the time to get away.

Once again, the two found themselves running blindly through the castle, trying to get the most out of what little time they had left alive. Going into any of the rooms was still out of the question. The chance of finding an escape route in one of them was just as likely as finding another dead end. Rather than retrace their steps (hoping they wouldn't run into Tao), they headed to higher floors. It was going well for a while until…

"Shit, they let her out" Ragna spat as they skidded to a halt when they saw Litchi ahead of them. As she wasn't with the others, she wasn't entirely sure where they had headed earlier so she had to merely guess and get lucky in finding them.

"We'll be surrounded when they catch up" Noel noticed. Even if Litchi was on her own on one side, her staff could easily trip them over if they weren't paying attention. And since the others weren't far behind them to begin with, they caught up a few seconds after.

"There's nowhere else to go this time" Bang said.

"We offered you a chance to give up peacefully" Carl started.

"Now we don't care if we have to eat you alive" Makoto seethed.

"Regardless, your deaths won't be pleasant" Tsubaki carried on.

"They might say that but don't you think it'll be easier if you did give up now?" Jin questioned. "One bite is all it takes for the both of you and then it's over. Not to mention you're surrounded as well as outnumbered."

"Why are we still talking to them?" Carl asked the group once he had already begun charging at them. "Finish them off quickly!" Ragna and Noel readied themselves for the right time to strike but before they could, Carl was knocked away by something else.

"What the hell?" Ragna said in confusion. He turned to look at Noel thinking she might have done it only to see Litchi standing right next to him having knocked Carl away herself.

"Litchi, why are you helping us? You're infected like they are" Noel asked just as confused as Ragna was.

"I told you I didn't feel hungry" Litchi reminded them. "I never ate anything since I was infected and I can only assume that I overcame the hunger a few days ago because of that. Now do you believe me?"

"I'm not complaining" Ragna answered.

"As long as you're helping us, here" Noel said, handing Lao Jiu to her.

"You can hold onto him" she declined. "I don't know if this is temporary so I can't trust myself. I'll be fine without him."

"It just gets better for us doesn't it" Ragna smirked.

"That's fine with us" Makoto shrugged. "We'll just eat you two and make her wish she was dead."

"You're not gonna kill her?" Ragna asked gesturing to Litchi.

"Death is what we all want" Tsubaki began. "It's the only way we can stop this and we're not going to give her that benefit after she's decided to stop us from eating."

"Are you guys gonna try to kill us or are you just gonna keep talking about it?" Ragna asked. Though it was just to annoy them, he wondered why they kept on talking. Provoked by his words, the infected group charged at the resistance, ready to fight to the death.

Ragna and Litchi blocked the initial attacks from Jin and Tsubaki. Carl soon followed after he had recovered from earlier, hoping to attack either one of them while they were preoccupied. He was knocked away by a shot from Noel. Makoto and Bang began their attacks hoping to succeed where Carl failed. Ragna kicked Jin back in time to block a punch from Bang while Litchi readjusted her grip on the staff to prevent Makoto from getting to Noel.

"If we weren't so hungry we'd let you keep working on a cure but right now, food's more important" Bang said to Ragna.

"You can overcome the hunger" Litchi began, not able to push both Makoto and Tsubaki back with her strength alone. With Lao Jiu still in Noel's possession, she couldn't control her staff's movement like she usually could. "Think about what you've been doing to people."

"Jeez, will you guys ever shut up?" Ragna questioned, knocking Bang away with some assistance from Noel. Seeing that Litchi was struggling to hold her two attackers back, Ragna attacked Tsubaki to draw her away so Litchi could deal with Makoto by herself.

"Bad move Brother" Jin smirked, stabbing Yukianesa into the ground. The ice jutted out of the ground cutting Ragna's leg.

"Shit!" he exclaimed. The ice started to cover his feet and rapidly climbed his legs. With only the top half of his body left unfrozen, he could only fend Tsubaki of which just about managed to do.

"Ragna!" Noel cried out. She couldn't help him as she was defending herself from Carl who had managed to get past both Ragna and Litchi. Litchi couldn't help him either as Makoto's continuous attacks forced her to block each attack carefully and now that Bang had begun helping Makoto too, she was barely able to protect herself. "Behind you!" Ragna turned his head only to see Jin right behind him.

"Too late Brother" Jin immediately bit Ragna's neck.

"Damn you Jin" Ragna spat, barely able to form the words due to the pain. Jin shattered the ice around his brother so he could finish him off.

"Get to him before there's nothing left!" Bang ordered the others seeing that Jin was intending to eat Ragna alone. They stopped attacking Noel and Litchi to get what they could. Not wanting to see him be eaten alive, Litchi and Noel attacked the five of them to get them off of him. As they were focused on trying to eat pieces of Ragna, they weren't too hard to knock away.

"Idiots" Ragna coughed. "You should have let them kill me. Now I've got this damn virus." Noel gasped upon realizing their error. All they had done was make the situation worse. Wanting to protect someone from being eaten alive was just a natural instinct.

"Quickly, before he turns!" Jin commanded. If Ragna became infected, there would be no point in eating him.

"Since you've let this happen, I'm gonna do what I can to make sure I don't kill the two of you" Ragna stood up shakily and barged right into the closest door he could see, forcing it open. "Get the hell out of here!" The infected group followed him into the room, completely ignoring Noel and Litchi. Ragna ran straight towards the closest window in the room he ran into and charged straight through it. Noel and Litchi saw exactly what he intended to do and ran while they still could through the corridors.

"Damn it, by the time we get to him, he'll be infected" Makoto complained as the five of them looked out of the window Ragna dove out of. He rolled upon hitting the ground outside and began running so he wouldn't be caught.

"Well what are we doing watching him then?" Tsubaki said. "We have to get Noel before she gets away!"

**To be continued...**

* * *

><p>One down. One to go.<p> 


	16. A Noble Soul

**Optional music:** Twin Devils - Lechku and Nechku from Ookami: youtube. com/ watch?v=u_v5Kw7vK04

* * *

><p><strong>A Noble Soul<strong>

Noel and Litchi ran through the castle once again. The confidence Noel had summoned had completely vanished when she realized that she was the only one left who hadn't been infected and knowing she was largely responsible for what happened to Ragna, she felt like she would only ruin something else if she tried anything. Kokonoe and Rachel would have returned by now if they intended to rescue them from death. Now she was the target of everyone in the castle except for Litchi.

"Litchi, I don't know if I can take this for much longer" Noel began as they were still running. "I-I don't want to die so…" She didn't want to continue. She didn't want to say what she was about to say. "Please, infect me so they have no one else to eat."

"I can't do that" Litchi replied. "Even if it seems like a better alternative to being killed, no one should have to suffer that way. You heard what they said earlier; they want to die but the hunger forces them to continue living. If I were to infect you, you'd have to live that way and so would I once again."

"But there's no point in going on" Noel said. "All I'm doing is running away from the inevitable. No matter what happens, I'll die here eventually."

"I know it doesn't seem like it right now but it would be better for you to die rather than be infected" Litchi told her. "You might think I'm being cruel to not infect you but I'm just trying to protect you from it."

"If that's the case, can you…" Noel began.

"I'm sorry but I don't know if I can do that either, Noel" Litchi admitted. "I know that killing you would be best but I've never killed anyone before. I want to help you in any way that I can but I don't know if I could bring myself to kill you."

"So you'd rather let me be eaten alive?" Noel asked, trying to convince Litchi to kill her. "At least I wouldn't have to be killed by my best friends if you did it now."

"Noel, I told you that I can't" Litchi responded. "I can only give you more time. Please don't try to convince me to kill you. I…" she trailed off.

"What?" Noel asked.

"You can survive" Litchi said simply.

"R-really?" Noel said, with a mixture of surprise and relief in her voice. "How?"

"It's not exactly guaranteed but if Valkenhayn returns in time, he can take you away from here" Litchi explained.

"But for that to work, we'd have to get back outside" Noel thought. "We can't go back the way we came."

"You're right but I can buy you time to find another way out there" Litchi stopped running and turned around.

"But they'll kill you after all the running away we've done" Noel told her, stopping as well. "We can cure you if…"

"It's alright" Litchi interrupted her. "It's fine if they do decide to kill me. I don't have anything to lose. As long as you're alive, you can find someone else to run tests on. Besides, they said they wouldn't kill me earlier."

"But, Litchi…" Noel began again only to be interrupted once more.

"Go!" Litchi ordered her. "They'll be here any second now." Noel remained where she was briefly before turning and running. She looked back at Litchi who gave a soft smile before turning away.

"_Thank you Litchi" _Noel said to herself. _"Please be safe."_

"Now you're sacrificing yourself to give her a few more minutes to live?" Tsubaki questioned Litchi when they faced her. "Do you have any idea of how stupid it is to fight all of us at once by yourself?"

"I don't intend to defeat any of you" Litchi remarked.

"Then why bother staying here to fight?" Bang asked.

"Tell us where she is and we might not have to give you so much of a beat-down later" Makoto offered. "Come on, admit you want to eat a piece of her too. We might even consider sharing with you." Litchi remained silent.

"Well, where is she?" Carl asked.

"I don't know where she is" was her reply.

"There's nothing to gain from defending her" Jin told her. "We'll find her eventually. After all, she can't escape from here."

"I'm telling you the truth. I don't know where she is" Litchi repeated.

"You'll talk soon enough" Bang said.

"More specifically you'll talk when you're begging for your life" Carl smiled cruelly.

"No matter what you do, I won't be telling you anything" Litchi said, readying her staff.

"We'll see about that" Jin smirked, leading the others to attack.

* * *

><p>"What are you here for Hellsing?" Hakumen inquired to the elderly butler appearing before him.<p>

"Madam Rachel requests your assistance" Valkenhayn told the warrior, getting straight to the point. "I assume that I don't need to offer an explanation as to why."

"I see exactly why" Hakumen stated. "You're seeking an end to the current state of the surviving members of the populace."

"Yes" Valkenhayn nodded. "We have confirmed that it is indeed Terumi's doing. He claims that it was an experiment gone out of control."

"It shouldn't come as a surprise to learn that he was behind this" Hakumen responded.

"It appears as if you were also searching for information" Valkenhayn noticed. "Have you managed to find anything?"

"There's nothing to find" Hakumen told him. "The information lies inside the infected residents of the city."

"Then I should let you know that Madam Rachel has captured one of the infected" Valkenhayn informed him. "We have yet to find out everything we need to know about the infection but we are making progress."

"Valkenhayn what brings you here?" a cheerful gruff voice said before Hakumen responded. Jubei approached the two.

"Madam Rachel is currently seeking assistance in ending this virus" Valkenhayn explained. "Master Hakumen's assistance would be very helpful to us."

"Can't argue with that" Jubei thought. "Findin' a cure is all we can do to ensure a future for the city. I've been finding small groups of survivors every now and then and rounded 'em up outside the city and the numbers aren't exactly promising. So far there're only about 20 of 'em, give or take."

"We haven't gathered many survivors either" Valkenhayn replied. "There are only five of us and one infected."

"25 at the most" Hakumen began. "That isn't nearly enough for the future of the city."

"If you say you're working on a cure, take Hakumen with ya" Jubei said. "I'll do what I can to help out the survivors."

"It's not as if I have a choice" Hakumen said.

"Now that we've settled that, we should be going" Jubei summarised. He began walking away while Valkenhayn prepared to create a portal back to the castle. "One last thing Valkenhayn." Valkenhayn looked back towards him. "Do you know if my daughter's alright?"

"Yes, Madam Rachel brought her to the castle several weeks ago" Valkenhayn replied.

"That's good" Jubei muttered. "Keep yourselves safe."

* * *

><p>Noel continued through the castle looking for the way back outside without going back on herself. As she was currently on one of the higher floors, she thought that all she needed to do was find the stairs to the ground floor and leave through the way they came in. Eventually, she ended up running towards places that she recognized until she finally found the way out. On the way out she noticed Tao's unconscious form in the garden. She assumed that Litchi must have been the one who did this earlier, explaining why she wasn't with the main group of the infected.<p>

"Where should I go now?" Noel asked herself, looking around. From the looks of it, there weren't too many places to run to. She climbed over one of the fences and ran into what appeared to be a cemetery at least that's what she thought since there were so many graves around. Her current plan was to simply hide behind one of the gravestones to elude the crowd while still being able to look out to see if Valkenhayn returned in time. She ran to look for the ideal spot to hide until she suddenly felt something grab her ankle causing her to fall to the ground.

Panicking, she quickly turned to see what had tripped her. Once she saw what it was that caused her to fall, she turned back and attempted to scramble to her feet to get away bit couldn't as her assailant hadn't let go of her. Before she could try to plead her assailant to spare her, the attacker roughly covered her mouth preventing any sound from escaping.

**To be continued...**

* * *

><p>Is this the end for humanity?<p> 


	17. One Step Ahead

Okay this chapter would have been longer but I decided to cut it about half way through just to keep on some form of update schedule. My available time for working on the story is steadily dropping so I thought I should at least update within a week.

**Optional music:** Blunderbuss Blues from Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare: youtube. com/ watch?v=8jP3avbrs_A

* * *

><p><strong>One Step Ahead<strong>

"Geez, will you calm down?" the person asked Noel, sounding somewhat annoyed. Noel was still trying to escape from their grasp without success. "I'm trying to help you out a little here." Noel stopped struggling against her assailant after their words. She looked back once again, fear still present in her eyes. It was Ragna of course but she wasn't surprised to see him again. She was surprised to find that he didn't seem to be showing any effects from the virus. "I'll let go of you if you promise to not start screaming or any shit like that." Noel nodded nervously. As soon as Ragna let go of her, Noel scrambled to her feet, putting as much distance as she could between the two of them.

"Stay away from me" she ordered him. She didn't know if he was just putting on an act to fool her. The infected clearly weren't stupid so it was entirely possible.

"Ignoring this, do I look infected?" Ragna pointed to the bite on his neck that Jin gave him. "And don't you think I would have killed you when I had the chance?"

"You could just be pretending" Noel told him, still backing away from him. "You'll pretend to help me against them and then attack me."

"Out of all of the stupid theories you could have come up with, you thought of that one" Ragna groaned. "Do you really think I'd do that when it means I'd have to share pieces of you with those bastards back in there?" He pointed back at the castle. Noel wasn't letting herself fall for anything he said. Ragna sighed. "Look, I'm not entirely sure why I'm not like them but I'm not trying to kill you."

"Prove it" Noel stated simply.

Ragna merely sighed in response. "It's something to do with this okay?" He held up his grimoire. "The virus just got absorbed by it or something which is why I don't feel like tearing you apart and eating you right now. All that's wrong with me right now is this damn headache I got from it."

"I still don't know if you're telling the truth or not" Noel replied. "If you try to attack me, I'll kill you."

Ragna chuckled. "If I do attack you, I hope you do kill me. I'd rather not live as a flesh-eating monster. Speaking of which, where's Litchi? I thought she was with you."

"She stopped to hold them off while I escaped" Noel explained. "I don't know if she's going to be alright."

"Don't worry about her, she probably knows what she's doing" he thought. "If she gave you time to escape, you must have something planned right?"

Noel nodded. "If Valkenhayn gets back here in time, he can take us to safety."

"Better yet, if he gets back here with Hakumen, we can kick these freaks out of here and get back to getting everything back to normal."

* * *

><p>After not much of a fight, Litchi collapsed. The fight went badly for her almost instantly. All of them landed several hits on her, the main ones being from Jin and Tsubaki who managed to cut her several times with their swords. The fight was practically over when a strike from Makoto dislocated her shoulder. Not being able to hold her staff with both hands effectively, a barrage of attacks followed that brought her down. Jin then proceeded to freeze her in place so she couldn't move. They all stood before her as if expecting something.<p>

"What are you waiting for?" Litchi asked. "I let her escape and I don't intend to tell you where she is. Why aren't you killing me?"

"We said that we wouldn't kill you" Jin reminded her. "You can stay here wishing we killed you."

"You don't have anything to lose so why don't you just tell us where she is?" Tsubaki asked.

"She's not even here anymore" Litchi replied smirking a little. "All I had to do was hold you off. We remembered a way for her to escape from here. By focusing on me, you gave her the time she needed."

"Where did she escape to?" Makoto demanded.

"How would it help if you did know?" Litchi responded. "You're trapped here. The only ones who can let you out of here aren't here."

"A trap" Bang muttered.

"You're lying. She must be around here somewhere" Carl accused. "If she could have escaped, she would have done so earlier."

"Think what you want" Litchi said. "I can't stop you from looking. Even if she hadn't escaped by now, trying to get answers from me only gave her more time." The infected group stormed off angrily in response. They had all taken the bait exactly as planned and had wasted valuable time that they could have spent looking for Noel after Litchi was dealt with.

* * *

><p>Valkenahyn and Hakumen appeared in the garden expecting to see friendly faces. Instead they saw no one.<p>

"Where are they?" Hakumen asked, looking around. Valkenhayn also looked around, immediately noticing something was wrong when he saw the cage was open and also when he noticed Taokaka unconscious nearby.

"Stay alert" he warned. Since Tao was here, he summarised that it must have been Terumi who had caused this, as Rachel certainly wouldn't have brought her here.

"Mr. Valkenhayn!" Noel called from where she and Ragna had been hiding.

"What happened here?" Valkenhayn asked while Ragna and Hakumen glared at each other.

"Terumi brought a group of infected here to attack us" Noel explained. "Miss Rachel and Kokonoe already escaped. We managed to get away from them for now but they're all still inside."

"You've been bitten, Dark One" Hakumen noticed, readying his weapon.

"Tell me something I don't know" Ragna replied. "The way I see it, if I'm not trying to kill you, as much as I don't want to be, I'm on your side. I already went through this with her."

"Madam Rachel must have taken Kokonoe back to her lab" Valkenhayn thought. "I'm not sure where Kokonoe performed her experiments in the building. It could be troublesome looking for them."

"What's the point in looking around for them?" Ragna questioned. "Rachel's gonna come back when she remembers that you went out looking for him." He gestured to Hakumen. "We might as well stay here and send 'em back to where they came from."

"Depending on how many of them there are, that might be easier said than done" Valkenhayn said.

"There are six overall" Noel began. She pointed to Tao. "She was part of the group too."

"That's one less to deal with" Hakumen noted. "Send her back before she wakes up." Valkenhayn nodded and sent Tao back to Kagutsuchi.

"Now you have to deal with us" Jin said, voice coming from the castle entrance.

"And she brought friends with her" Makoto noticed.

"Hakumen doesn't look edible at all though" Tsubaki thought. Hakumen tightened his grip on Ookami upon noticing that she and Jin were part of the group.

"_She's not the Tsubaki I knew_ _and he's not me in this timeline" _he reminded himself, looking back and forth between the two. If it was to save this timeline's Kagutsuchi from extinction, he had no doubts about killing either of them.

"I don't know how you're still standing on that side, Ragna the Bloodedge but as long as you're not infected to the same degree as us, we can still devour you" Carl said.

"What makes you think you can get to me again?" Ragna asked. "I know more of what to expect from all of you and this time, we have more backup."

"We'll see about that, Brother" Jin smirked.

* * *

><p>Rachel sat on the chair that Nago had transformed into waiting patiently for Kokonoe to make a new breakthrough concerning the situation. Little did she know, Kokonoe wasn't making any progress in her mind or on paper. Her thoughts were elsewhere. Ever since this outbreak started, she had been on the sidelines while everyone she gave a task to were risking their lives and suffering terrible fates as a result.<p>

"Rachel, bring those two here" she finally said.

"You didn't just ask what I think you just asked did you?" Rachel replied.

"You know I did" was her reply.

"Ragna and Miss Vermillion knew what it meant when I brought you here. Rachel told her. "Two lives mean nothing to the survival of the human race in Kagutsuchi. Besides, what would you do if I went back there and became infected?"

"The point is: you wouldn't let yourself" Kokonoe said.

"I'm not implying that I would let myself become infected" Rachel stated. "One bite is all it takes and taking their numbers into account, there is little I can safely do."

"Do you know what it's like to live with the decisions I've made in the last month?" Kokonoe turned to face her. "I sent Tager and Lambda out there to do something about it and then what happened? Lambda's dead and Tager's more or less been torn apart. I send Litchi to capture one of them and she got infected in the process. Now Ragna and Noel are giving themselves up just so I can find a cure. That's three people's lives I've screwed up and I couldn't do anything to about it."

"Don't you think you're contradicting yourself?" Rachel questioned her calmly. "You blame yourself for decisions with terrible consequences yet you ask me to offer my assistance in yet another dangerous situation."

"Does it look like I care?" Kokonoe snapped. "I can't get my mind off of these… failures so I'm not making any progress with a cure to this damn virus." She paused and took a deep breath to calm herself down. "Look, I'm not telling you to single handedly fight all of them off or even fight them at all, but can you just try to help those two out a little." Both of them looked at each other not saying a word until Rachel eventually sighed and stood up.

"I suppose I could at least attempt to rescue the two of them. After all, Valkenhayn may well return and encounter some unwanted guests."

**To be continued**...

* * *

><p>As I said before, this chapter was going to be longer and include the fights between the infected and the non infected groups but the fights were too short and overall not too good. So rather than not update at all, I thought I should just split the chapter for now and work on improving the fights for the next chapter.<p>

Until next time!


	18. Call it a Comeback

Ugh, so much work had to be done over this week... but now it's finally all done! Sorry for the wait.

Also I finally got Continuum Shift on 3DS so I've been playing that. Since I live in Europe, that entitles me to get Japanese games many months after they come out (except for Mario Kart 7 which I got today. Take that all other continents!). Not forgetting the fact that it got lost in the post so I had to order another one...

Anyway, if you've looked back at previous chapters, you'll see that I've added optional music to accompany the chapter for most of the chapters.

**Optional music: **'Get back in that hole, partner' from Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare: youtube. com/ watch?v=2Dw2dihWQxs

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><p><strong>Call it a Comeback<strong>

With much more room to fight in, it was admittedly harder to predict their movements but this time, the two sides were closer to even and the uninfected side took it upon themselves to separate their fights to avoid getting in the way of each other. Ragna, wanting to settle the score, faced Jin, Noel faced Carl while Valkenhayn fought Bang. Since Hakumen couldn't be infected by any means thus being the best candidate to face two at once, he took on both Tsubaki and Makoto.

"Give up already Brother" Jin said to Ragna, clashing swords with him "You know what happened last time."

"You only got me when I was busy holding someone else off" Ragna recalled. "This time, you won't even come close."

"We'll see" Jin smiled, pushing against the larger sword. Removing a hand from his sword, Ragna delivered a quick uppercut, knocking Jin back. Reacting quickly, Jin stabbed the blade of his sword into the ground, freezing it and halting Ragna's approach. Ragna backed off, not taking the risk of slipping or becoming frozen. Taking advantage of Ragna's hesitation, Jin had the time to create a set of ice swords and send them flying straight at Ragna. Not wanting to risk even touching the swords, Ragna dodged them as best as he could. Jin however didn't show signs of stopping his assault, hoping to eventually strike Ragna.

"How do you expect to eat me when you're back there Jin?" Ragna taunted. While Jin had projectile attacks and Ragna didn't, they wouldn't do much good here considering Jin needed to be close by in order to be within biting range. Jin becoming annoyed, immediately summoned an icicle, jumped on it and sped toward Ragna. At their current distance apart, Ragna already thought of a counter.

"Gotcha" he smirked. "Gauntlet…" He jumped forward, grabbing Jin by his head when he got close enough and slammed him into the ground. "Hades!" Using the opening he had received, Ragna slashed straight down on Jin while he was still on the ground. "Carnage Scissors!" He finished off with a powerful dark aura trailing from a second slash, sending Jin flying.

"Nicely done Ragna" Rachel commented, having just appeared. She approached Jin before he could get up and sent him back to Kagutsuchi.

"Took your time getting back" Ragna scowled. "Seriously, you could have come back a little sooner."

"And here I was thinking you lived to do nothing but fight" Rachel mused. "As fun as it is to torment you, there are more important matters at hand."

* * *

><p>Noel was more than capable of keeping Carl off of her. Without Nirvana, Carl wasn't too much of a threat as Noel could easily out-range him.<p>

"Carl, there's nothing you can do to get to me" Noel began. "Please stop. I don't want to hurt you more than I have to."

"Those are bold words Noel" Carl noted. "You're being overly cruel considering we were friends, don't you think?"

"I know that we were friends. I already told Tsubaki and Makoto that we'll be friends again when this is over. If all you're trying to do is make me feel guilty, you won't be able to beat me."

"It's far from over Noel" he muttered dashing towards her. He was finally getting used to where Noel was placing most of her shots when he approached so he could anticipate the majority of them. When Noel managed to land a shot, Carl flinched a little but was still able to send a gadget rushing across the ground. The flowerbed hid it from sight so Noel looked around frantically to avoid it. When she noticed it, it had already grabbed onto her ankle. She panicked as it launched her into the air and saw Carl approaching while she was airborne. She didn't know why but although she was panicking, she was able to formulate a quick plan.

"Bullet Storm!" She fired a barrage of shots from her guns, all taking Carl off guard finishing off with a missile to make sure he wouldn't get up again. The explosion caught the attention of the others, namely Ragna and Rachel who headed towards where it occurred. Noel landed, breathing heavily.

"You're lucky these guys are zombies or that would have been overkill" Ragna commented as Rachel approached Carl to send him back to the city.

"As long as we can stop them, the force required is irrelevant" Rachel said.

* * *

><p>"I assume you realise that you would be at a disadvantage to fight me up close. Only one bite is needed" Bang told Valkenhayn, attempting to land a devastating punch. Valkenhayn dodged to the side, not risking the harm it could cause.<p>

"Then you too must also realise that you are at a disadvantage up close" Valkenhayn replied. "I can send you back to Kagutsuchi with a single touch." Bang jumped back almost instantly after hearing this. It was a stalemate. Neither could risk getting too close but Valkenhayn still had the upper hand. It would be easier for him to warp Bang back to Kagutsuchi than it would be for Bang to bite him.

"_This won't be an easy fight. I'll need to think strategically"_ Bang thought. His thoughts were interrupted by Valkenhayn's incoming kick. Barely reacting in time, Bang raised one of his gauntlets to block it. Quickly reacting once again, he unleashed a powerful aura to counter. Valkenhayn expected a counter to his own predictable kick and quickly assumed a defensive stance to prevent himself from being caught in the aura. As he predicted, Bang's failed attack left him open.

"A poor choice of counter" Valkenhayn admonished. Before Bang could recover, Valkenhayn already approached, created a portal and forced Bang through it. Immediately he was sent back to Kagutsuchi.

"Thank you Valkenhayn" Rachel said. "I'd rather not have had to touch that barbarian myself." Valkenhayn bowed in response. "Now shall we dispose of the rest of them?"

"Yes madam Rachel."

* * *

><p>"Take this!" Makoto reared her arm back to put more power into the punch she was about to deliver. Hakumen merely lifted an arm to block before grabbing her arm with his other hand and throwing her across the garden. Tsubaki quickly followed, being a little more cautious than Makoto was when attacking. Hakumen unleashed a mighty swing of Ookami to drive her back. Tsubaki jumped back in time to avoid a fatal blow and approached again when Hakumen recovered from his attack. Attempting to leave no openings for Hakumen to attack, Tsubaki made sure her strikes were always on target. If she could buy some time until Makoto got up again, they would stand a better chance of taking him down. Hakumen carefully blocked each attack, watching for his chance to counter. Reading her next attack, Hakumen swiftly reached out and grabbed her sword, catching her by surprise. He delivered a swift backfist to knock her back.<p>

"Why do you keep trying?" Hakumen inquired. "You should be begging me to free you from the infection."

"When we're not hungry, we'll do something about it" Tsubaki said, still recovering.

"But since we _are_ hungry, we can worry about that later" Makoto continued.

"Hmph, this fight accomplishes nothing" Hakumen shook his head. "Do you see any part of me that might sate your hunger?"

"He's gotta be hiding something edible under that armour" Makoto thought. "We'll just peel it off and find out."

"If we keep putting dents in it, we might be able to eventually" Tsubaki carried on the trail of thought.

"I admire your tenacity but this fight will reach its inevitable end very soon" Hakumen looked to the side.

"What makes you say that?" Tsubaki asked. "We can still fight."

"Your accomplices are gone. You two are the only threats left." Tsubaki and Makoto looked around. Sure enough, they were alone and now Ragna and Noel were ready to join the fight against them.

"This could be bad" Makoto stated.

"Damn right" Ragna agreed with her. "How does it feel to be outnumbered like we were earlier? Now, are you gonna go peacefully or do we have to kick you out of here."

"We only need to get one bite out of you so you can just try and kick us out" Tsubaki countered.

"You both seem to have overlooked something" Rachel said, her voice coming from behind them. "A fight is not required when the two of you can be sent back in an instant."

"Face it, you can't do anything to us. Just give up so you can get out of here" Ragna said.

"We can take 'em" Makoto said to Tsubaki. "If we get a bite out of one of them, the rest will be easy."

"'If' is the main problem with what you just said" Tsubaki replied. "Two of them can send us back there straight away and one can't be bitten. We can't face all of them at the same time."

"Oh, come on- whoa!" Makoto began before an Optic Barrel shot from Noel interrupted her. When the two of them looked around, Ragna, Hakumen and Valkenhayn were heading straight towards them. The wide arc of Hakumen's sword forced both of them to dodge while simultaneously leaving themselves open to Ragna and Valkenhayn's attacks. Ragna covered his fist with a dark aura from his grimoire as he punched Tsubaki, following it with a strike of similar nature from his other arm, sending her flying. Valkenhayn jumped, extending his legs in a drop kick fashion, directly striking Makoto also knocking her back. The two struggled to get back on their feet before…

"These senseless battles are over" Rachel said, creating a portal and sending both of them through it.

Noel sighed in relief. "It's finally over."

"Not entirely" Ragna began. "We still need to find something that might cure everyone." As soon as he finished, Rachel immediately disappeared only to return a short time later with Kokonoe.

"I've done more than you asked me to do Kokonoe" Rachel stated. "Will this be all you need to start working again?"

"You really got rid of all of them?" Kokonoe appeared somewhat surprised.

"Uh, sort of" Noel said, remembering something. "Inside the castle." She pointed to it.

"Valkenhayn, accompany her would you?" Rachel sighed.

* * *

><p>Litchi remained in the same place she was before due to the fact that she was still frozen in place. To add to her problems, her shoulder being dislocated was still causing pain. She had already come to the conclusion that this was worse than death. That was probably the precise reason they left her there. All she could do was wait until she eventually died of natural causes or for the horde to kill her. When she heard footsteps approaching, she expected the group to attempt to interrogate her further so she paid the footsteps no mind.<p>

"Litchi, you're alive!" she heard a surprised Noel's voice say to her as a shot broke through the ice.

"_Why is she still here?" _Litchi asked herself in shock. _"She hasn't been infected has she?"_ She turned and faced Noel accompanied by Valkenhayn, feeling relieved when she noticed that neither of them were infected. "What are you still doing here? I told you to get out of here!"

"It's alright now" Noel said. "We sent them all back to the city and Ragna's fine too… at least I hope so."

"You… sent them all back?" Litchi asked, confused.

Noel nodded. "Miss Rachel came back and Mr. Valkenhayn brought Hakumen here. Since it's safe again, we can get back to making a cure so I thought that you could help out again."

Litchi smiled. "Alright then."

* * *

><p>"So despite being infected, you're pretty much back to normal?" Kokonoe questioned Litchi.<p>

"It seems so" Litchi replied.

"Why is it that you seem to be the exception to every theory we come up with for this damn virus?"

"I think this time it was because I was isolated and couldn't eat anything for those few weeks" Litchi assumed. "The others have probably been eating this whole time."

"Anyway, you're still infected and we don't know if this is only temporary" Kokonoe said. "Because of that, you're going to have to go back in there." She pointed to the cage that she was in before.

"I understand" Litchi replied. She wasn't sure how long this was going to last so it was for the safety of everyone else. After she entered the cage, it wasn't locked behind her.

"Any reason why you're not locking that thing?" Ragna asked

"Yeah, you're going in there as well."" Kokonoe stated, speaking to Ragna.

"What the hell?" he exclaimed. "Why the hell do I have to go in there?"

"For the same reason she's going in there again" Kokonoe gestured to Litchi. "If that neck wound is anything to go by, you're infected as well."

Ragna scowled and then sighed as he too was pushed into the cage. "If she tries to kill me, you're gonna be sorry."

**To be continued...**

* * *

><p>Believe it or not, we're actually nearing the end of the story. There'll only be 2 or 3 more chapters after this one :(<p>

Let's not dwell on that though.

Next time, it's back to making a cure for our heroes!

See you then!


	19. A Group Ready For Anything

Well here's chapter 19 of Blazblue Zombies. Not much of the story left!

* * *

><p><strong>A Group<strong> **Ready For Anything**

"And that's the last of us" Carl stated as Makoto and Tsubaki finally appeared back in Kagutsuchi.

""Looks like you didn't get anything" Bang noted.

"Well if you guys didn't screw up, we might have had a chance" Makoto scowled.

"Overall it was a waste of time" Jin said calmly.

"You're one to talk" Tsubaki glared at him. "You're the only one who actually got anything."

Jin shrugged. "It's not my fault you didn't think about what you were doing instead of attacking blindly."

Tao finally waking up, yawned loudly, interrupting them. "What happened?" she asked curiously. "Did Tao get to eat?"

"No but if you didn't help out the one in the cage, you wouldn't have got knocked out and we might have been able to eat something" Makoto said angrily.

"Don't start blaming her for your failures" Jin said.

"What was that?" Makoto fumed.

"Hold on, there's still one good thing that came out of this" Bang said, attempting to stop the hostilities.

"What might that be?" Carl asked.

"If we can't attack them, they can continue working on a cure" Bang explained. "They can put an end to this virus."

"They won't want to cure us after what we've done" Tsubaki sounded doubtful. Everyone else silently agreed.

* * *

><p>"Now that we have peace here once again, shall we get back to ending the spread of the virus?" Rachel said to the group.<p>

"Yeah, we can actually start working on it again" Kokonoe agreed. "Now, my trail of thought's the same as it was before. We're gonna be looking for Arakune."

"Jeez, I thought you were joking about that before" Ragna groaned.

"Why the insect?" Hakumen questioned. "What are the possible benefits of bringing it here?"

"I'll keep it short and say he might be the key to fixing this mess" Kokonoe said. "We're a little short handed right now since you guys have to stay in there." She looked at Litchi and Ragna, then towards Noel. "Noel, you're going."

"What?" Noel exclaimed. The sewer was the last place she wanted to go to. She had barely managed to keep herself alive and now she was risking it again. Not to mention the sewer was crawling with bugs, namely Arakune himself.

"What, you thought you were going alone?" Kokonoe questioned. "Either Rachel or Valkenhayn are going too."

"N-no, it's just… there are bugs everywhere in there" she stammered. "I don't like bugs." She hoped that by admitting it, she might not have to go.

"I highly doubt that qualifies as an excuse Miss Vermillion" Rachel told her. "What you don't like is irrelevant considering the situation."

"How do you expect to capture him?" Litchi asked, having first hand knowledge of how difficult the task was.

"Simple. We use Hakumen" Kokonoe explained. "You can stop him regenerating himself can't you?" Hakumen nodded in response. "All right then, Noel and Hakumen can head there and split up to find him. Valkenhayn, you ready?"

"Hold on Kokonoe" Rachel interrupted. "This time, I will accompany them."

"Really? You're volunteering?" Kokonoe asked, somewhat surprised.

"Aren't you worried you'll ruin your clothes or some shit like that?" Ragna questioned

"As I said to Miss Vermillion, the situation is of the utmost importance so I have no right to refuse to go for my own personal creature may also be more vulnerable to my own means of offense. I doubt that Valkenhayn's claws will do much to one with such an inhuman form."

"Fair enough" Kokonoe shrugged. "Before you go, I want to discuss something with you Rachel." The two walked out of earshot leaving the others confused as to what they were talking about.

A few minutes later, they returned. "Alright then, now that we've got that out of the way, off you go" Kokonoe told them as Rachel created a portal to the sewer for herself, Noel and Hakumen.

* * *

><p>When the three of them appeared in the sewer, they looked around for available pathways to take.<p>

"To make it easier for us to leave once we're finished here, I propose to stay here while still looking for the creature" Rachel began. "This way, the two of you know where I am." Hakumen nodded while Noel continued to look around nervously. Everywhere she looked, huge insects crawled around in and out of sight. She thought that the seithr concentration here must have made them grow to this size. She didn't even like small insects with many legs and now these ones were facing her, several times their normal size.

"Do we really have to go on our own?" she asked nervously.

"In order to find the creature, we must cover a lot of ground" Rachel said. "Going together is not the way to accomplish that. Remember what it is we're trying to accomplish."

"I know but…" she trailed off. She knew she was scared but clearly curing her friends and everyone else was far more important, just like she had been told earlier. "Okay."

"Very well then" Rachel concluded. "Now, before you leave, Mr. Hero, there's something I need to discuss briefly. I see no reason why you should have to wait here with us, Miss Vermillion. You may begin your search." Noel nodded and hesitantly began her search.

Throughout her search, Noel couldn't help but get the feeling that she was being watched. Since Arakune could camouflage himself into the background, this was most likely, although if that were the case, she probably would have been eaten by now. Maybe she was just getting paranoid. The fact that she was in currently in a sewer also registered itself in her mind. The insects were only one reason why she didn't want to be here. On another personal note, she worried for her own hygiene. She found herself wondering how Litchi put up with this so often.

Back to the matter at hand, she still sincerely hoped that it would be Hakumen who found Arakune first. At least he would be able to fend him off with relative ease. Noel felt that all she could do was slow him down before he eventually ate her.

Eventually, she heard a gentle tapping noise. She wasn't entirely sure where the sound was coming from though. It may have just been echoing off of the walls. No matter where she looked, she never saw anything nearby. Maybe it was just her imagination. In a matter of seconds though, the sound became louder and faster paced. Finally, Noel turned around completely, expecting to see something. Still nothing.

She sighed. "I know I heard something that time. Something's nearby but where?" She listened more closely while standing still only to find that the sound had stopped. "Maybe I was just imagining things." She sighed again and turned around to continue heading in the direction she was already going. But as soon as she turned around, she saw a black mass right in front of her, which then grabbed her with several claws.

"Kihihihihihi! Consume!" Arakune laughed, preparing to absorb her. Noel screamed as an immediate response before attempting to ready Bolverk but it was no use. Arakune's claws had a tight hold on her arms, preventing her from moving too much.

"No, stop!" Noel cried trying to fight her way out of his grip. In the end, it was too little to late. Arakune had already pulled Noel into his body, ready to devour her whenever he wanted.

"Azure! The Azure, I have it! Mine at last!"

* * *

><p>"Would you mind filling us in on why those three are out looking for that freak?" Ragna questioned while they were waiting.<p>

"I already told you he's got something to do with Litchi somehow being an exception to everything we thought about the infection" Kokonoe explained irritably.

"Yeah I gathered that but the basis for looking for him is just something you thought of on the spot" Ragna argued.

"I'm aware of that" Kokonoe replied.

"It's all that we have for now" Litchi said. "It can't just be a coincidence that I was attacked by him and then started showing different symptoms to everyone else."

"And that's all the reason we need to find him" Kokonoe concluded.

"If that thing doesn't have any answers for us, we're back to square one and not to mention it's gonna try and kill us" Ragna said.

"Wrong, if anything, you'll be the only one he goes after" Kokonoe smirked.

"Oh thanks, just let me get eaten alive to save yourselves" Ragna spat.

"Can you both just stop arguing?" Litchi asked. "I'm sure there are more productive things to do, professor." Kokonoe sighed before turning away.

"Are you suggesting there are more productive things _we_ can do?" Ragna questioned.

"No but you could fix my arm" Litchi suggested, showing her still dislocated shoulder.

"Fine" Ragna groaned. Considering the injuries he had had in the past, a dislocated shoulder was an easy fix made even easier by the fact he was fixing someone else's arm and not his own.

* * *

><p>Inside of Arakune's body, Noel couldn't see anything. All around her was nothing but pure darkness. She struggled to escape but soon found that she couldn't. She assumed that all she could do now was wait for him to devour her. During her struggling, she realized that she wasn't alone when she felt something crawl into her sleeve and over her arm.<p>

"Wh-what's doing that?" she asked herself nervously. Only now did she also realize that she could feel things crawling around all over her. She immediately screamed and panicked. "Get off!" she screamed, frantically trying to brush them off as quickly as she could. Not the easiest task when she couldn't see anything. No matter how many she attempted to brush off, more would just crawl onto her. It was most likely that the bugs were slowly but surely eating her. Despite not being able to see anything anyway, she shut her eyes tightly, fearing the worst.

Arakune was a little surprised to find a live human. The last live person he saw was that woman whose name escaped his memory. It didn't matter too much to him though. Consuming the dead ended up with the same result as someone alive. Still, his latest find was satisfactory and he looked forward to devouring her fully. She was struggling to escape with all her might but her futile acts would end soon. As Arakune was about to search for more, he was suddenly struck by lightening.

"Such a disgusting creature" Rachel commented.

"There is little difference between it and the infected" Hakumen stated.

"True but Kokonoe still wishes to capture him."

"K konoe … Kokonoe" Arakune began to twitch and jerk violently. That name; it continued to enrage him. "Gyahhhh!" He screeched as he threw himself directly at the two, spreading his body out to envelop either one of them.

"Impish Gypsophila" Rachel said calmly, summoning the pumpkin and sending it straight towards Arakune. All the pumpkin was able to accomplish was going straight through its target, leaving a hole, which quickly regenerated.

"A waste of time" Hakumen muttered readying his blade. "It regenerates after any attack." He immediately swung Ookami straight through his assailant's body. Instantly, Arakune was cut nearly in half with ease before he could do any harm. As part of his body split open, Noel tumbled out onto the cold, hard ground. Before Arakune could pull himself back together, Hakumen stabbed Ookami into his fallen form. Arakune screeched in pain once again. He couldn't regenerate himself with the sword stabbed through him.

Rachel chuckled. "So this was all it took to incapacitate such a creature. How long are you expecting to lie there?" she questioned Noel.

"S-sorry." She stood up, brushing any remaining insects off of her and feeling like thoroughly cleaning herself at the earliest opportunity.

Hakumen lifted his sword with Arakune still impaled by it. "We're done here" he said bluntly.

* * *

><p>"Wow you guys… actually did it" Ragna said, surprised upon seeing Arakune still impaled by Hakumen's sword, struggling to escape.<p>

"Indeed" Rachel responded. "My assistance in his capture was not needed."

"At least something's finally going our way" Kokonoe muttered.

"Noel what happened?" Litchi asked when she saw Noel still brushing insects and what appeared to be small parts of Arakune's body off of her.

"He appeared out of nowhere and completely covered me" she explained. "He didn't have time to eat me though."

"He covered all of you?" Kokonoe asked, attempting to confirm what she had just said. Noel nodded in response. "Good." As soon as she finished speaking, she jabbed a syringe into Noel's arm and injected its contents.

Startled, Noel looked down at her arm. "What… what was that?"

"What do you think it was?" Kokonoe not expecting an answer. "The virus."

**To be concluded...**

* * *

><p>Cliffhanger ending!<p>

Interpret it as you will but all will be answered next time.

Noel's bad ending also involved her getting eaten but not consumed by Arakune. I thought it worked well for this chapter.

Anyway, as the bold text says at the end, the story will be concluded next chapter. So sad, but the story has to end at some point.

See you all for the finale!


	20. A Cure for Most of What Ails You

And here's the finale! Sorry it took a while. As you can probably tell, it's much longer than my other chapters so that's one reason why it took a while. I was aiming to upload this last week but I got distracted a lot. Then I decided to beef up the story a little to make the chapter as a whole better.

Anyway, on with the finale!

* * *

><p><strong>A Cure for Most of What Ails You<strong>

"What the hell?" Ragna exclaimed, not believing what Kokonoe had just done. "You just infected her?"

"Professor, what are you thinking?" Litchi questioned, just as shocked.

"W-why?" was all Noel could bring herself to say. Scared wasn't the best word to describe how she felt. She was completely terrified. Kokonoe said nothing in response and observed Noel's actions. Rachel, Valkenhayn and Hakumen also said nothing.

"You'd better have a damn good explanation for this!" Ragna shouted at her. "We're possibly the last few people left alive and you infect another one of us. Are you insane?"

"Professor…" Litchi said with unease.

"Will the two of you shut up?" Kokonoe glared at them. "That's enough time. How're you feeling Noel?"

"I- I don't know" she replied. She currently didn't feel any different. From what she saw when Litchi was infected, it was painful and she would be able to feel it. "I don't think I feel any different." Maybe her previous fear of being infected was all that was different.

"I thought so" Kokonoe smirked.

"It seems you were right after all Kokonoe" Rachel said.

"What do you mean?" Noel asked, still worried about the infection inside her. "You infected me so I can't be okay."

"On the contrary; you're immune to it" Rachel stated.

"What?" Ragna asked, confused. "How can she be immune? What makes her different?"

"You should know already, Dark One" Hakumen replied. "It's the insect's doing." He stabbed his sword into the ground with Arakune still impaled by it.

"Aggggggg! Azure Azure Azure! G ve t to me!" Arakune screeched.

"Shut up!" Kokonoe told him, annoyed. "But yeah, it's his doing. It's the same reason why Litchi's not completely infected, only to a more advanced degree."

"So when he attacked me before…" Litchi began.

"He only covered part of the left side of your body" Kokonoe concluded. "More than just your arm probably haven't been infected but your clothes are probably hiding it. I didn't really care to check."

"But how was this plan supposed to work if he didn't try to eat me?" Noel asked.

"The plan _was _to let him try" Rachel answered.

"Wh-what?" she responded, almost horrified. "You let him eat me? I could have died!"

"Why else do you think you were rescued so quickly?" Hakumen said. "We followed you to stop you from being consumed."

"You all planned for him to try to eat me?" Noel asked once again. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Isn't that obvious?" Kokonoe scolded her. "What would you have said if we told you to go to the sewers and let yourself get eaten?"

"Well, if you would have explained why, I might have thought about it" Noel thought.

"You're kidding right?" Ragna said to her. "You were going to think about letting yourself get eaten? Jeez, you really are an idiot."

"You probably would have said no straight away" Litchi agreed.

"I thought you were on my side" Noel muttered.

"Moving on, you got completely covered by him and you're immune to the virus, that's all that matters" Kokonoe summarised.

"Wait, how did you know that this would happen?" Ragna questioned.

"You said it was the same as what happened to me but how could you have known when I kept showing different symptoms?" Litchi asked.

"I figured out what happened to you after I asked about it" Kokonoe explained. "After that, I re-examined your blood sample and found the answer."

"If I may interrupt, you told me that you couldn't work because of the guilt you were suffering from" Rachel recalled.

"Yeah well, you weren't watching me work the whole time" Kokonoe defended herself. "Anyway, I found traces of whatever the hell that crap is that Arakune calls a body in the sample. Then that's when I figured it out. I can only guess and say a small amount of it got in the bloodstream when he attacked but it was pretty much acting as a filter."

"A filter?" Everyone looked confused.

"While blood was flowing around normally, that filter was the reason why your arm was uninfected" Kokonoe explained, facing Litchi. The infected blood passed through, with the infection being filtered out. When blood flowed back from the arm, the infection was picked up again. That's all there is to it. I just thought that if the whole body was covered, the infection wouldn't have a chance to progress."

"That's actually pretty weird don't you think?" Ragna asked.

"Yeah but I'm a scientist. I've seen plenty of weird things but this one takes the cake for weirdest" Kokonoe answered. She then sighed and turned to Litchi. "Litchi, this is the only time I'm gonna say this but thank God you didn't give up on him. There, I said it, now let's move on." Litchi couldn't help but smile a little.

"You say a cure will be made soon" Rachel began. "How soon?"

"Can't say for sure" Kokonoe replied. "The immediate solution from him just prevents infection but it shouldn't take too long to make a cure out of it."

"Okay that took a little longer than expected but I've finally got something" Kokonoe announced. She approached Litchi, ready to test the potential cure. "Here's hoping that it works." Injecting what she thought would be the final solution, she stepped back. "And now we wait."

"Great, now how long's that gonna take?" Ragna asked, growing impatient with all the waiting.

"How the hell do I know?" Kokonoe retorted. "It's not as if I've done this before. It could take five minutes or it could take five hours."

"How do we know if it's worked or not if that's the case?" Noel asked out of curiosity.

"Theoretically, it should work" Kokonoe explained. "If it works, her skin should start fixing itself. If not… well nothing will happen. We've just gotta wait and see."

"If we are to cure the remaining population, this solution is highly impractical Kokonoe" Rachel pointed out. "How do you expect us to inject every last one of them with the cure and more to the point, how do you expect to wait for it to take effect if they decide to attack?"

"It also shouldn't take as long to take effect on me since I'm not fully infected" Litchi agreed.

"In your case Litchi, there can't be too much of a gap in time between curing you and curing them but it still shouldn't take too long to start working" Kokonoe said. "First things first though, we have to make sure that this cure actually works. If they do attack us, to be honest, there's nothing we can do but hold 'em down and wait for the effects to take place. An injection is the most practical since I've got no other ideas of what I can get from him and as you can see, we don't exactly have a shortage of the source." She gestured to Arakune who was still flailing around on the end of Hakumens sword.

"You said we have no choice but to hold 'em down" Ragna began. "How do you expect us to hold down a potential city of 'em?"

"My plan was to cure a few of 'em and then bring them on our side to finish off the rest" Kokonoe said. "Simple. Enough of that though, you guys can sit back and watch what happens to Litchi. I'm gonna work on something to make this particular solution work faster."

* * *

><p>"It's slowly working" Litchi said, looking down at herself. The necrotized look of her skin was slowly receding and returning to normal. It hadn't taken too long to reach this stage but it was certainly working at an admittedly slow rate. It wasn't clear if the bloodlust of the other infected would fade at the same time as Litchi had overcome it some time ago.<p>

"It works. That's a start" Kokonoe commented. "Well everyone, once I finish working on improving its performance, we'll have a cure for the virus."

"That's good news" Noel sighed in relief. It was finally going to be over. Everything could go back to the way it once was or close enough to how it once was anyway.

"Great now can you let us out of here?" Ragna asked. "I'm still fine if you hadn't noticed."

"Maybe so although it is rather amusing to see you trapped in there" Rachel smirked. Ragna scowled in response.

"Just let 'em out Rachel" Kokonoe told her. "He's not gonna shut up about it otherwise and Litchi, you can help me with improving the effectiveness of our current solution."

* * *

><p>"Well this is it" Kokonoe announced. Some time after Litchi had fully recovered, she and Kokonoe had finally created what seemed to be the final solution. Noel finally returned Lao Jiu to Litchi now that she had been cured. "We've got the cure, now we just need to distribute it." She held a number of syringes each containing what would cure the virus and gave them out. Rachel handed hers to Gii for him to carry. They were given to all but Hakumen since he had nowhere to put it and because he couldn't carry it due to wielding a two handed sword. "After working on it, the amount of it in each syringe takes about a minute to start working."<p>

"It'll be at its maximum potential if it's injected into the neck" Litchi finished. "It still works when injected into other places but our time estimates have been based largely on an injection to the neck."

"It's about damn time" Ragna ran his hand through his hair. "We just have to beat 'em senseless and inject this into 'em right?"

"That's pretty much it" Kokonoe answered. "You three should all be fine if you get bitten" she said to Ragna, Noel and Litchi. "Just hold 'em down until it starts working and don't let yourselves get torn apart."

"I'm just glad we could put an end to it" Noel said. "It'll finally be over."

"Indeed, the madness will finally end" Rachel agreed. "Now" she said, creating a portal. "Shall we be going?"

"Hang on a sec" Kokonoe interrupted. "First off, we gotta send him back." She pointed to Arakune.

"Valkenhayn" Rachel said. Valkenhayn didn't need to be told anything more. He created his own portal while Hakumen pulled his sword out of the ground. Before Arakune could recover, Valkenhayn threw him into the portal.

"Sorry Litchi but you're gonna have to find him again yourself" Kokonoe said to her.

"It's fine" Litchi replied. "This is more important now anyway."

"Okay. Second of all, Hakumen, hold out your arm." Hakumen did so hesitantly. With the circumstances considered, it couldn't have been anything to make it easier to seal him again later. "I'm gonna coat you claws in this stuff. There's enough of it to go on 'em to be almost instant if you can dig them into someone."

After applying it to Hakumen's claws, Kokonoe turned to Valkenhayn. "I guess it'll be all too easy to cure someone if we cover your claws in it too." Valkenhayn nodded, and transformed into his wolf form.

After covering Valkenhayn's claws too, the group stepped through the portal to Kagutsuchi. Rachel had created a portal to take them to where they had sent the infected when they last encountered them.

* * *

><p>"So, you came to give yourselves up?" Tsubaki questioned the group. "We couldn't get to you by any means so why are you out here?"<p>

"Funny you should ask" Ragna replied. "See this?" He held up a syringe. "This is the shit that's gonna fix you guys up."

"A cure?" Makoto wondered. "There's no way you could have made something like that. We've tried everything."

"Geez are you blind or something?" Kokonoe questioned. "Take a look." She gestured to Litchi. "Does she look as infected as when you last saw her?"

"So what if you found a cure" Carl responded. "We're still hungry from last time."

"Your appearance here doesn't help the hunger" Bang stated. "If you managed to cure yourselves, we'll end up infecting or eating you this time."

"We'll cure you with this before that happens" Noel said. "Once we inject this into you, you'll all be back to normal and this time, you can't infect any of us. We're immune to the infection."

"If we're immune to infection, the window of opportunity you get from biting us doesn't exist" Litchi concluded.

"Boobie lady's confusing Tao" Tao looked at them curiously. "They don't look immune."

"Why would they?" Jin reprimanded her. "You may be immune to infection but that doesn't protect you from being eaten."

"Hmph, just try to get to any of us" Hakumen said.

"If we can't be infected, you all have no choice but to devour us in a matter of seconds" Rachel explained. "Considering our numbers, that will be quite impossible."

"Professor, leave this group to us" Litchi said to her. "You'll be targeted if you can't fight to defend yourself."

"Yeah I know" Kokonoe replied. "I'll find some people around here to cure. Just don't waste those samples while I'm not around."

"Time to put an end to this, you freaks" Ragna said, drawing his weapon, starting the conflict. Jin launched a frozen sword at him, which Ragna slashed through before advancing. Tao sprung towards him attempting to halt his advance only to be knocked to the ground by Litchi's attack with the Mantenbo.

"I'll deal with you myself, Tao" Litchi said as Tao recovered.

"Let's play boobie lady!" Tao cried happily, darting towards her.

"Tsubaki, Makoto, I'll save you myself" Noel faced both of them.

"Don't be a fool" Hakumen stated, standing beside her. "You can't hope to fight both of them alone."

"Aww, we would have been fine with facing Noel alone" Makoto sighed.

"It can't be helped I suppose" Tsubaki commented. "Considering the amount of us, we all have one opponent."

"So who's facing who?" Noel asked.

"Hmph, naïve" Hakumen muttered, leaving her behind while he advanced towards the two. It didn't matter who faced each other just as long as Noel didn't get in his way.

"It seems everyone else has chosen their opponents" Rachel commented, standing beside Valkenhayn opposite Carl and Bang. "Valkenhayn, do keep that sweat drenched barbarian away from me." Valkenhayn nodded and then snarled as he charged at Bang.

"You'd be wise to not underestimate me" Carl said to Rachel as Valkenhayn and Bang began fighting. "You don't look like the fighting type yourself."

"You shouldn't underestimate the princess, young man" Nago replied

"Yeah, the princess will mop the floor with you" Gii agreed. Rachel didn't respond at all.

"If you think that those two are scaring me, you're mistaken" Carl told her.

"They're nothing to be scared of" Rachel said calmly. "However, if you deem yourself to be a worthy opponent, try to keep me amused at least."

* * *

><p>"You're still trying to beat me Jin?" Ragna smirked. "Did you forget what happened last time?" The two traded blows leaving each other at a stalemate.<p>

"What happened last time isn't important now, brother" Jin replied. "This time, there's no interrupting our battle." He quickly let go of his sword to grab at Ragna's coat to freeze him. Ragna saw this and lowered his stance to follow up with a rising slash. Jin countered by swiping his own sword in a quick draw motion just about making contact with the Blood Scythe when Ragna brought it down to block in time.

"_Shit, that was close" _Ragna thought. _"What the-?"_ He looked up to see ice begin to form on his sword. He jumped back to prevent the entire sword freezing over. Upon landing, Jin already rushed towards him and slashed in multiple directions wildly. Ragna was able to block most of them. The strikes he was hit by didn't bother him too much. They were only light scratches to him. In a brief pause from Jin, Ragna released dark energy from his sword low to the ground. Jin was merely pushed back by it though.

Following the blocked attack, Jin pierced the ground with his sword, summoning a frozen blade to strike from ground below. Finding himself jumping back again to avoid it, Ragna didn't see Jin speeding towards him on an icicle. Barely swinging the Blood Scythe in time, Ragna struck the ice and shattered it but his timing was off. Jin had already jumped off and was bringing his blade down on him. Ragna jumped, swinging his own weapon up at Jin to hopefully overpower him and knock him off balance. Jin however quickly landed when he anticipated Ragna's attack. He swiftly sheathed his weapon, throwing Ragna's aim off.

"Gale" Jin called, once again unsheathing his sword and stabbing it into the air directly above him, using Yukianesa's power to boost its range and effectiveness. Ragna couldn't block in time and was knocked down to the ground. "Reaping Blizzard!" Jin smirked as he launched a huge wave of ice at the frozen Ragna. With no way to escape, Ragna was struck by the wave.

"Gah! Shit" Ragna grunted as he slowly got back onto his feet, spitting out blood.

"It's over, brother" Jin said.

"Not yet Jin" he muttered He grabbed his right arm activating his grimoire. "Blood Kain!" The grimoire unleashed a huge wave of black energy, stunning Jin. Ragna roared as he sprinted towards Jin, unleashing a mighty swing with his weapon. Amplified by the grimoire's power, Jin struggled to block but was still able to do so. Ragna continued his relentless attacks, slowly feeling his energy drain. Jin continued to block Ragna's attacks. He was being pushed back enough by each attack to provide a quick decision on where to block.

"_I'm not getting anywhere like this"_ Ragna told himself. When he approached this time, Jin was ready to block when Ragna reared his sword back. This however was a feint. His arm was now covered with seithr taking the form of the Black Beast's claw. He grabbed Jin with the claw. "Now it's over." Spears of darkness continuously struck Jin's body until Ragna slammed him into the ground.

Ragna stood over him. "Jeez, I can't believe I have to cure you but whatever." He jabbed the syringe into Jin injecting the cure. "Just stay there and wait for it to start working."

* * *

><p>Tao was a tricky opponent as always. Litchi couldn't land any strikes worth of note because of her speed. On the other hand, she was able to block her attacks with relative ease.<p>

"Try to catch Tao, Boobie lady" Tao punched the air in a friendly taunt. She didn't appear to be taking the fight seriously at all.

"Tao, this isn't a game" Litchi replied. "I'm trying to help you but you're not fighting seriously. If you're just playing a game, let me cure you.""

"If Boobie lady gets tired, Tao can eat sooner" she responded, ignoring most of what Litchi said. "Tao didn't forget how Boobie lady beat me up before."

"_So that's what she's doing" _Litchi thought. _"I can't match her speed no matter how hard I try. I just have to trick her and find openings."_ Taking Tao's intelligence into account, tricking her might have been a good choice to go for. She set the Mantenbo on the ground, planning to use it to create chances to attack later. She dashed towards Tao who, as expected, nimbly dodged any attack that she attempted, both low and high attacks. Of course, Tao still knew that Litchi's offence wouldn't be without holes. When her attacks started to show openings, Tao countered by grabbing her attempting to bite her.

"Feed Tao!" Tao said happily. Litchi quickly recalled her staff to knock her away. Barely calling it back in time, Tao was knocked away but quickly recovered and began slashing wildly at Litchi. Holding the staff in her hands, Litchi attempted to block and hopefully stop her barrage of attacks.

"_If I can catch her claws while she's rearing one of them back to attack me, I should be able to stop her, if only briefly" _Litchi thought. She was already being pushed back slowly by the continuous attack and decided that jumping back when there was enough space between them would also be a good strategy. Unfortunately (but also inadvertently), Tao changed the angle of her attack towards the edge of the Mantenbo, knocking it out of Litchi's hands and also deeply cutting into her arm. Luckily, the event caused Tao to stop her attack briefly allowing Litchi to make a quick retreat in spite of the pain in her arm.

"Tao's hungry!" Tao cried as she pounced directly at Litchi baring her teeth in response to her retreat. Reacting quickly, Litchi jumped back once again but this time straight at her staff, causing Tao to land empty handed and look confused. Jumping back at her staff, Litchi kicked the lower portion of it, sending it spinning towards Tao, striking her, as she wasn't prepared for it. Tao quickly recovered once again. She was injured but didn't let it show.

"Thirteen Orphans" Litchi called, finally seeing her chance to end the conflict. The Mantenbo sprouted arms and legs and flailed wildly at Tao, consistently striking her until it spun around in a flurry of punches to finish. Before Tao could recover, Litchi approached as quickly as she could and injected the vaccine. It wasn't an easy fight but she had succeeded in curing Tao. "This should be enough to stop you" Litchi said, breathing heavily.

* * *

><p>Bang was being much more cautious against Valkenhayn this time even though he didn't know that it was Valkenhayn. His wolf form could easily cause much more harm than before. This also made it difficult for Valkenhayn to cure him since he couldn't land a successful hit and his claws couldn't break through Bang's gauntlets.<p>

"Foul beast, prepare to- gwahh!" Bang began before Valkenhayn crashed into him. Valkenhayn himself was surprised that the attack hit since he was blocking so well before. Bang was sent flying back by the hit but turned his fall into a roll in order to recover. "H-how dare you interrupt me, beast! For that I must teach you-!" Once again Valkenhayn had charged at him, forcing Bang to block, this time successfully. "How foolish of me. I would expect a beast to have no concept of honour."

"_If he wouldn't start talking after I had started an attack…" _Valkenhayn thought. He felt that he should explain the situation to him later as he couldn't risk changing back into human form and losing the effects of the cure on his claws.

"Take this, Steel Rain!" Bang threw out an umbrella, which opened itself and released a torrent of nails over Valkenhayn. Not expecting the umbrella to do what it did, Valkenahyn was hit by several nails before he was able to escape its radius. The pain wasn't enough to affect his performance substantially though.

"I'm not through yet! Volcanic Fury!" he bellowed, already charging at Valkenhayn with his shoulder. Valkenhayn nimbly dodged out of the way of his path by leaping into the air and dived down at Bang when his attack had passed. He swiped at him with his claws, almost certain that he would succeed. Bang quickly turned on the spot and raised his gauntlet to block once again catching the werewolf by surprise. In the brief pause, Bang unleashed a powerful punch, striking Valkenhayn in the side. He followed up the attack with a double palm thrust, knocking Valkenhayn a considerable distance away.

"Stay down unless you want to face the might of Bang Shishigami once more!" Bang yelled confidently. Valkenhayn picked himself up again and snarled as he leapt towards Bang once more. "Very well, I will finish this fight." Bang jumped to meet Valkenhayn in the air, reaching out to grab him. "Hurricane Bang- wha?" Valkenhayn swiftly turned his body and smacked Bang down to the ground with his tail before he could be grabbed. Seeing a chance to end the fight, Valkenhayn dived straight down after him, baring his claws. Bang rolled away to the side just about dodging and prepared to counter attack but Valkenhayn sprung from his landing point, dodged Bang's counter and raked his claws across his chest.

"Y-you! You're from the previous fight!" Bang said, surprised as Valkenhayn jumped back and transformed into human form.

"This battle is over. The cure for the disease is now flowing through your bloodstream. In a few moments, you will be cured" Valkenhayn explained. "I must apologise for what you misconstrued about fighting with no honour." He bowed. "I did not anticipate your words when I began an attack."

* * *

><p>"Your attempts are feeble at best" Rachel admonished Carl. "I expected more of a challenge after your words from a short while ago."<p>

"I'm still not finished" Carl said, catching his breath. He could barely get close to Rachel. Not only was a strong wind against him but he was also being bombarded with a multitude of projectiles including two lightening rods which had yet to serve their purpose.. When he was able to get somewhat close, Rachel would nimbly spin out of the way and counter.

"The princess is just too strong for you" Gii taunted him.

"He's right. You may be strong but you're in a different league to the princess" Nago agreed. Both were silenced by a hit from Rachel.

"You are the vigilante who possessed the Nox Nyctores: Nirvana am I correct?" Rachel questioned. "I don't see why you would discard it when your capabilities are rather low while alone."

"My sister wouldn't listen to anything I said after I was infected" Carl told her. "She told me she wouldn't help me sate my hunger, not that I blame her. She wouldn't do something so barbaric."

"Then perhaps it would be best if you gave up and let yourself be cured" Rachel suggested. "There is little you can do to me at all."

"I told you I wasn't finished yet" Carl repeated.

"Oh? Is there something that you have yet to show off?" Rachel wondered.

"As if I would tell you now" Carl muttered. He set off on another head on charge.

"George XIII" Rachel calmly called out George XIII to meet him in the middle of his dash. George slowly made his way towards Carl ready to let loose a powerful shock. Just as the frog began releasing it's electrical charge, Carl jumped over it before it could do any harm. Rachel reacted by creating a gust of wind, pulling George back to intercept Carls landing. Carl quickly produced his dagger, stabbing with it multiple times before hitting the ground. George was hit by a few of these strikes and disappeared in an instant. Rachel summoned her jack-o-lantern to send it towards Carl with another gust of wind. Carl performed a quick roll underneath the passing projectile.

"P-p-princess! He's getting closer and he's dodging everything we throw at him now!" Gii pointed out nervously. Rachel remained silent.

"Throw out one of your own attacks you idiot" Nago berated him. "That's what we've been waiting for."

"Oh yeah" Gii replied. "Take this!" He threw a pink coloured object at Carl, which he was able to dodge as normal. The object hit the ground and morphed into a tall lightening rod. "Waah! Princess, do something!" Rachel responded by grabbing the bat familiar, stretching him out to form a shield for herself. Her reaction was timed just about right as Carl summoned a huge gear which spun wildly, threatening to cause a great deal of harm.

"Damn" Carl muttered. Despite Rachel lack of care the familiar, he didn't expect her to go as far as to use him as a shield. The gear disappeared shortly after it was summoned. Rachel quickly retaliated with a strong headwind pushing Carl back towards the previously summoned lightening rod.

"Baden Baden Lily" Rachel called, summoning lightening to strike around herself and on the rods. No matter what Carl did, he couldn't guard against lightening. He was struck multiple times as the lightening kept up. When it subsided, he collapsed onto the ground.

"Gii, finish this" Rachel ordered.

"R-right away Princess" he said weakly, still recovering from Carl's attack. He flew over to Carl, barely able to keep himself aloft, and injected him with the vaccine.

* * *

><p>"You were no match for me before" Hakumen commented as he raised his hand, effortlessly catching Makoto's fist. "There is no difference now." He lifted her overhead and slammed her into the ground. Tsubaki approached from behind ready to deliver a quick attack with Izayoi only to see Hakumen block it with his wrist. He turned and stabbed his sword at her. Tsubaki was able to block with her shield but had a hard time doing so. Not paying attention to her surroundings due to the attack, she didn't see an Optic Barrel shot and was knocked back.<p>

"Tsubaki, Makoto, please just let us cure you" Noel pleaded. "We're already overpowering you."

"Maybe he's overpowering us, but you're not, Noel" Makoto said.

"Attack him again, I'll cover you this time" Tsubaki said to her quietly. Makoto nodded and attempted a jumping attack on Hakumen this time. Hakumen blocked the attack as usual and moved to counter however, Tsubaki quickly closed in and struck him with Sanctus Decus before he could attack Makoto, pushing him back. Hakumen merely grunted but was barely harmed. Makoto saw exactly what Tsubaki had planned; she was planning on holding off Hakumen while she could go after Noel. Noel, confident that she could still hold Makoto off on her own, fired at her to halt her advance however Makoto knew that this was what Noel intended to do and created two illusionary copies of herself to throw her off.

"_I can't tell the difference between them!" _Noel thought. _"Which one-?"_ Rather than think about it she attacked one of aerial copies with an angled shot. As she thought, it was an illusion. Quickly turning her attention to the ground copy, she was about to shoot but the other aerial copy, revealing itself to be the real Makoto when the ground copy vanished, attacked with a downward punch. Raising Bolverk instinctively to defend once she saw the copy disappear, Noel managed to block but felt herself being pushed down under Makoto's strength. Makoto reacted by allowing herself to land and attacking low before Noel could block once again. This time, Noel was swept off of her feet by Makoto's tail.

"Don't worry Noel, it won't hurt much." Not wasting any time, Makoto tried to finish off Noel by biting her in such a way that would kill her. With little to no time to react, Noel was left helpless.

Tsubaki wasn't faring too well against Hakumen. Her intention was just to give Makoto a chance to finish off Noel. All she had to do was hold off Hakumen until Makoto was done. Considering Hakumen's strength, it would be better to stay defensive, however, Hakumen's sword, being as long as he was tall, made blocking difficult since a single successful hit could end the fight. Because of the latter fact, Tsubaki tried to remain on the offence. She attempted many attacks on the legendary warrior but nothing appeared to work. Either he would block the attack or if he wasn't quick enough to block, he was unfazed by the attack.

Hakumen was well aware of what Tsubaki was trying to do but couldn't do much to prevent it. Constantly having her attacks countered before, Tsubaki kept out of his arm's range or dodged before he could do so. He carefully bided his time to find an opening but saw no such chance. Seeing that this was the case, he quickly formulated a plan to end the fight. When Tsubaki attacked again, Hakumen let her strike at his armour once again. Tsubaki was confused as to why he did so as even she could see that it was his intention to be hit. Nonetheless, she wasn't going to waste the opportunity and continued to attack, exactly what Hakumen had planned. During her attack, Hakumen stretched his arm out and attacked with the claws on his hands. Tsubaki attempted to dodge but since she was already attacking, she couldn't do anything as Hakumen dug his claws into her neck.

Hakumen lowered his sword. "You're cured" he said bluntly. Thanks to the amount of the vaccine that had been applied to his claws, it took almost instant effect on Tsubaki's cannibalistic thoughts. Her thoughts cleared from cannibalism, Tsubaki realized what she was doing and also lowered her weapon. "Help your friend" Hakumen told her, noticing Noel's current situation.

"Y-yes" she stammered before sprinting over to stop Makoto before it was too late. Hakumen stood back and watched. He knew that he could have stopped Makoto but he allowed Tsubaki to do so to allow her to redeem herself.

Knowing words wouldn't stop the infected, Tsubaki charged at Makoto, leading with her shield, before she could kill Noel. She succeeded in striking Makoto, knocking her down. Before she could get up again, Tsubaki pinned her down.

"What the hell are you doing?" Makoto yelled angrily, struggling against Tsubaki's grip.

"Noel, quickly!" Tsubaki called to her. She knew Makoto was stronger than her physically so she wouldn't be able to hold her down for long. Being slightly confused as to why Tsubaki was calling to her, Noel opened her eyes and looked in the direction of where her voice came from, instantly seeing what was happening. Noel hastily got back up and quickly injected Makoto with the cure.

After injecting Makoto with the cure and waiting for her to stop lashing out at her, Noel allowed herself to fall back on the ground. "It's over… It's finally over" she said, barely believing it herself. She looked around and saw the others were recovering too. The nightmare was finally over. "Tsubaki, Makoto!" Noel cried out happily, throwing her arms around both of them.

"Ugh, Noel not so rough" Makoto groaned. "I've got the worst headache ever right now." Tsubaki smiled at their reactions but it quickly disappeared. She was troubled by something. She didn't want to dampen the mood but she felt that she would have to say it eventually.

"Noel, after everything we've done, you still think of us as friends?" she asked. Noel let go and looked at both of them, concerned. Tsubaki and Makoto merely looked away. They had killed countless people, near enough decimated the city and even came close to killing her a few times just to partially satiate themselves. All of which were inexcusable.

"Of course I do" Noel replied. "It wasn't your fault and you weren't yourselves so you didn't mean to do any of what you did."

"Noel, we…" Makoto began. "We destroyed the city, killed all of the people and you're forgiving us?" Noel nodded. "We're so lucky to have you as a friend!" she cried, pulling both Noel and Tsubaki into a tight embrace.

"M-Makoto! I c-can't breathe!" Noel cried.

"What a touching reunion" Ragna commented. "You better not try any of that shit with me Jin." Jin didn't respond. "Tch, I don't know why I bothered with you" he groaned. "I should have killed you to pay you back for biting me earlier and you're just gonna try and kill me next time you see me anyway."

"Hmph" Jin replied. "Don't expect me to go easy on you in the future because of this."

"Yeah, I thought you'd say that" Ragna replied.

"Tao, are you alright?" Litchi asked, out of concern as Tao still hadn't gotten up. "Tao?" She nudged Tao with her foot just in case she was still infected. The Kaka was probably just asleep but she needed to be awake to show any signs of being cured. Ordinarily, Litchi wouldn't have bothered to wake her, knowing the futility of it but this time was different. She jabbed her staff into Tao's stomach with considerable force hoping that that might do the trick. It seemed to work as Tao suddenly gagged and covered her stomach with her arms.

"Stop! I'm gonna throw up!" Tao cried. Litchi readied her staff just in case she attacked. Tao blinked several times, taking in her surroundings. "Boobie lady!" Tao sprang from where she was straight at Litchi who tried to protect herself but couldn't. However her intentions weren't to bite her but rather… to play with Litchi's breasts.

"T-Tao! Get out of there!" Litchi protested, feeling as flustered as she always did when this happened. As usual, Tao didn't listen and happily continued. "Hey! Knock it off!" She hit Tao on the head, hard enough to make her let go.

"Mew, that hurt boobie lady" Tao whined clutching her head. Despite her previous reaction to Tao's behaviour, Litchi couldn't help but smile in relief. At least she was back to her normal self. Speaking of being back to normal…

"Miss Litchi!" Bang bellowed. He approached her dragging Carl along with him and bowed deeply before her. He then forced Carl to bow as well. "I can only apologise for our behaviour towards you. I don't expect you to forgive us for our actions." He turned to Carl. "Master Carl, apologise to Miss Litchi" he whispered.

"No, you don't have to apologise to me" Litchi responded.

"She's right Mr. Bang" Carl agreed with Litchi. "We made life difficult for everyone who's still alive and everyone who worked on curing us."

"Don't worry about it" Kokonoe dismissed, making her appearance known. "But you guys owe us a lot of favours for saving your sorry ass's."

"Yeah I expected that" Makoto said.

"If there's anything we can do to rebuild the city, we'll gladly oblige" Bang offered.

"No shit" Ragna responded. "Kagutsuchi's a train wreck of a city now."

"If you'll all just accompany me for a while, we can recruit some others" Kokonoe said, leading the way. "There's somewhere I want to go to anyway." Everyone silently agreed and followed.

* * *

><p>The now larger group roamed Kagutsuchi, following Kokonoe and curing people as they went. Eventually when they reached the Hanging Gardens, a familiar figure lay there on the ground not moving. Kokonoe approached alone.<p>

"Hey, Tager, how long do you plan on just lying there?" She stood over him. "Even if you still look all messed up, you must have repaired yourself enough now to at least stand up."

"Kokonoe, you…" Tager began.

"Don't give me any crap, just get the hell up" she ordered. As Tager started rebooting many of his systems so he could stand again, Kokonoe looked over to the side, seeing a severely damaged Lambda nearby. _"I can probably get her up and running again with… a lot of work. Damn, that's gonna be a pain in the ass to fix."_

"Well I'm not completely repaired but I can still perform basic functions" Tager said.

"I'll fix you up properly later" Kokonoe replied. "You're not in much of a condition to do what we're trying to do at the moment. Anywhere else that anyone knows of where there'll be people around?" she asked the group.

"I believe Jubei has gathered a small group of survivors outside of the city" Valkenhayn said.

"Ugh, fine" Kokonoe groaned. "We're heading to the outskirts then. Tager, gather her up will ya?" She gestured to Lamda's broken form. "I'll fix her up too."

* * *

><p>"There's a big group of people coming this way" a survivor said, earning Jubei's attention.<p>

"All of ya, stay back for a minute" Jubei calmly ordered them. "Torakaka, come with me a minute. I'm gonna see what's happenin'." Jubei and Torakaka cautiously headed in the direction of the approaching group.

"It seems we have nothing to fear, cat person" Torakaka noted.

"Torakaka, cat person!" Taokaka leapt out from the group to greet them.

"Tao, it's good to see you again" Torakaka smiled.

"What're you and cat person doing outside the city?" Tao asked.

"We were gathering survivors Tao" Torakaka told her. "They would most likely have died without us rescuing them."

Upon seeing Tao and the rest of the group, a smirk crossed Jubei's face. "Well, well, looks like you've done pretty well for yerselves." Kokonoe looked away, not intending to talk to him at all. "Although some of you look a little worse for wear."

"Yeah, you're telling us" Makoto said.

"You look like you've been pretty busy yourself" Ragna noted.

"Yeah, this is everyone I could find" Jubei replied.

"You've gathered quite a few survivors" Jin said. "I assume this was the reason why we weren't able to find anyone for a while."

"Were you able to find more survivors?" Hakumen inquired.

"Not many more but even a couple are better than nothin' right?" Jubei said rhetorically. "So what's the situation back there?"

"You'll be pleased to know that it has become significantly more peaceful in Kagutsuchi" Rachel answered.

"We found a cure but there're still some people in the city who are still infected" Noel explained.

"Well that's the first piece of good news I've heard for weeks" Jubei chuckled.

"We're sorry for causing you any trouble in the last few weeks" Tsubaki apologised.

"Nah, as long as you're all back to normal it's fine" Jubei waved off her apology. "Lemme just gather the rest of my group here and we'll help ya out." Jubei briefly left to call the group of survivors over. Some were familiar to some members of the first group.

"Doctor, you're alright!" Linhua called to Litchi rushing over to greet her.

"Linhua, I was so worried about you" Litchi sighed in relief. "I feared the worst after I left."

"I tried to find you but I was attacked by them. Luckily Mr. Jubei found me and brought me here" Linhua explained. "How did you get away if you weren't here with the rest of us?"

"It's a long story. Let's just leave it at that for now" Litchi answered. "I'll explain some other time."

"Boss!" several of Bang's subordinates yelled. The ninja grouped around him, happy to see him again.

"My loyal followers, it warms my heart to see even a few of you were spared" Bang said. "For now, we must work on rebuilding the city for everyone left homeless by this plague."

"Yes boss!" all of them yelled.

"And Mr. Clover, there's somethin' you'd like to see here too" Jubei said to Carl pointing to a particular member of the crowd who stood alone.

"Ada!" Carl cried. "Thank you so much for finding her."

"Don't mention it" Jubei replied. "Weren't that easy to convince her to follow me though."

"…" Nirvana remained as silent as ever but Carl understood.

"I know" Carl looked down. "I'm sorry about what I did."

"…"

"Thanks sis" he said. "I promise I'll make it up to you."

"Kokonoe, why are you acting like this?" Tager questioned her noticing she hadn't said a word. "I'm aware of your dislike for Jubei but…"

"I've got nothing to say" Kokonoe interrupted him. "Everyone else just explained everything."

"Alright everyone, these guys have got a cure that they're startin' to distribute around the city" Jubei told his group. "We'll all be goin' back to the Kagutsuchi you know and love… well close enough to it anyway." The crowd cheered in response.

"At least until we get rid of the rest of the zombies, the city should be fine when we're trying to fix it up again" Ragna thought. "Terumi's probably gonna turn up at some point and screw everything up again though."

"Indeed but I doubt Terumi would have much use for a destroyed city" Rachel commented. "I believe he will at least wait for the city to be rebuilt and become a little more populated before he makes his move."

"There is little Terumi can do if he decides to show himself before all of us" Valkenhayn pointed out.

"When you say it like that, we shouldn't be worrying about him" Noel said. "If he can't do much, we can concentrate on the city and the rest of the infected people. Not to mention the people who lost their lives."

"We should at least pay our respects to them" Litchi agreed. "Rebuilding the destroyed parts of the city takes priority for now though considering the amount of work that needs doing."

"I agree" Carl responded. "The amount of repairs that need to be done will be difficult to say the least."

"Not to worry Master Carl" Bang said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "No task is too great when you have the ninja of Ikaruga working alongside you."

"Tao will work extra hard too!" Tao yelled, punching the air.

"That's the spirit Tao" Torakaka smiled. "Try not to work yourself too hard though."

"Hey, it's not as if you're working on your own" Makoto said. "But yeah, it's gonna take a while."

"Even though there are so few of us, we just need to work together" Tsubaki stated. "It doesn't matter how long it takes as long as it gets done eventually."

"With the situation as it is now, we're all allies" Jin said, glaring at Ragna.

"I will spare you for now Dark One" Hakumen began, also talking to Ragna. "When we next meet, you will meet your end." Ragna waved off his comment.

"Whatever, let's just get going already" Ragna said. With that, the now much larger group headed back to Kagutsuchi to set to work on the city.

* * *

><p>"Well, that's the end of that" Terumi said as he and Relius watched the group from a distance. "Overall I'd say the experiment was a success even if it did get a little out of hand."<p>

"Even though you had no involvement with ending it, I suppose I should start working on creating a new body for you" Relius stated.

"Ah, Relius, you're a true friend" Terumi replied. When Relius didn't respond, Terumi began thinking to himself. "What will I do next?" he asked aloud. "Vampire curse? Wait no, that's no good. Night of werewolves? Nah, that's no good either." He thought harder about potential future plots. "Feel free to make a suggestion any time" he said to Relius.

"Enough of this" Relius said. "Wait until you play your part in the Imperator's plan and then think about your own plans. However, thanks to your most recent plan, there are little to no sacrifices left for the Cauldron. Our plans will be delayed for a considerable amount of time."

"Yeah, yeah, I know" Terumi sighed. "Until then, you guys can look forwards to what we have planned" he said to the group who were already nearly gone from sight. "I look forward to seeing the roles each of you will play." He created a portal for himself and Relius to take them back to the Librarium. Both men disappeared through it leaving no traces of them ever being there.

**Blazblue Zombies END**

* * *

><p>And there we have it. The zombie plague is over and everyone will be returning to their normal lives.<p>

Terumi/Hazama's line at the end about vampires and werewolves was meant to be a jab at other types of horror films but then he realised Rachel and Valkenhayn already fit the bill for both his ideas so he scrapped the idea :P

Now that this is the end of the story, this'll be the only time I'll actively ask for reviews. I would just like to know what everyone thought of the story as a whole. Please tell me if you liked it, hated it or want to offer me constructive criticism etc. etc. Reviews like those help me improve for future stories :)

Speaking of future stories, I've got a small idea for one at the moment but yeah, it's still a small idea so it might be a while before I upload anything.

Finally, shout-outs to Snorkelbird who reviewed a while ago and took a guess at a plot point. That being Arakune's immunity to the infection and his involvement in Litchi's different symptoms. Well done to you for guessing right!

That's about it I think so I'll see you all later in another story.

I hope you enjoyed reading the story because I really enjoyed writing it.

Thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, alerted and favourited the story!

See you all in another story!


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